Accusatory ping-pong persists at Santa Casa da Misericórdia
Since respected public servant Ana Jorge was summarily dismissed as chairman of Lisbon’s Santa Casa da Misericórdia (SCML) for “seriously negligent behaviour”, there has been a form of accusatory ping-pong ongoing, involving government sources, and political circles generally.
As the fragile AD government rides the proverbial rapids of a precarious minority, voices outside it claim the executive is embarking on a ‘sanitisation’ of public servants – removing anyone in high office who is not considered an ally.
Correio da Manhã today hints at ‘the real story’ behind the substitution of PSP boss Barros Correia. The minister of interior administration apparently disagreed with his choice of people for various roles, and then offered him a job in …. Mozambique (!)
While PSP sources are far from happy with the way they lost their chief, the government’s dealings with regard to Ana Jorge are somehow more distrubing in that Ana Jorge is very much a grand dame of public service: she has been a minister of health, president of the Portuguese Red Cross, president of the Lisbon/ Vale do Tejo health administration, among a long list of roles and duties. She has received various prestigious awards during a distinguished career and therefore it is surprising to hear her so publicly attacked.
Today, Lusa reports that the minister of labour, solidarity and social security has accused Ana Jorge, 74, of “total inaction” during her time in the post of chairman of the Lisbon Santa Casa da Misericórdia.
The minister has equally accused the entire board (which she also dismissed, along with Ana Jorge) as having acted to serve itself.
In interview with public broadcaster RTP, Maria do Rosário Ramalho insisted there were “very solid grounds” for the dismissal of Ana Jorge, along with the rest of SCML’s board.
“I’ve heard that it was political sanitisation – it wasn’t at all…” Jorge’s dismissal was justified “for management reasons” and for her “total inaction” in the face of the financial crisis she inherited from the previous board, said Ramalho.
The minister reiterated what the government had said in its initial statement about “a failure to draft a restructuring plan.
“The conversation we had didn’t show any sense of urgency in view of the situation that existed,” she told her interviewers. “There was nothing” prepared, indeed since Ana Jorge took office “she has done nothing” to improve the institution’s financial situation, said the minister.
Ramalho added that “it didn’t occur to (the government) that (the board) didn’t have a financial restructuring plan” or that it “had increased spending on staff” – noting that spending had only been cut in the form of 19 managers losing their positions and the bonuses associated with them, but they remained at the institution, while the board had decided to increase the salaries of its own members.
“The board’s salaries were increased – they benefited themselves, not at all the people who are in the operation,” she added, pointing out that the majority of SCML employees earn the minimum wage.
Regarding Ana Jorge’s accusations of “slander and bad faith”, the minister said she found these “very strange” and listed a series of events leading up to the dismissal, such as the lack of a report on measures to be taken to restructure the organisation, and a response to a set of “very basic questions” posed, which Jorge never provided.
Citing “communication failures” Maria do Rosário Ramalho said that she had “absolutely” lost confidence in the outgoing SCML boss, and that this was why she took the decision to dismiss her “on the basis of the law” in force.
However, the minister rejected the idea of any criminal action being taken against Jorge for her actions while in post, emphasising that what concerns her “is management” and that the decision she took was based on data collected by the government, which the minister did not want to detail before presenting it to members of parliament at a committee hearing that is planned.
Ramalho equally rejected allegations of a political clear-out levelled at the government over the dismissal of Ana Jorge – who has been told she must to remain in her post in a caretaker capacity until she is replaced, in the words of the minister as “is the obligation of anyone who holds public office.”
The process of replacing Ana Jorge “is urgent, but not hasty (…) If it were a political reorganisation, I’d already have four or five people to put in place.”
Maria do Rosário Ramalho added that the government is looking for someone with “a financial profile” to take over, and is not taking it for granted that it could be found within one of the parties in the governing coalition – but nor is it ruling this out: “There are very good financiers in all the parties.”
The minister emphasised that the government wants “a change of direction” for the post. Very much like the minister of interior administration said yesterday that the government has a ‘new project’ in mind for the PSP… ND
Source material: LUSA
