The Socialist opposition party has demanded a parliamentary hearing on the privatisation of Portugal's airports operator ANA.
The formal request was lodged last week after an earlier request for a grilling of the members of the Monitoring Committee of Privatization of ANA was rejected by the government.
The Socialist party led by António José Seguro requires clarification of the privatisation process for ANA as it has doubts as to whether the government defended the national interest, suggesting that it cut corners in the dash to bank the €3 billion paid by French infrastructure group Vinci.
Socialist MPs Rui Paulo Figueiredo and Miguel Freitas signed the formal application which was announced today by the PS but was lodged in parliament last Thursday. It is addressed to the president of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Works, Social Democrat, Pedro Pinto and this time has the power to force a discussion.
The first attempt to question the members of the Monitoring Committee for the Privatisation of ANA was rejected last March after a vote in parliament.
The new move brings into play a compulsory hearing which the socialists consider as essential to clarify "the whole process of privatisation of the ANA public enterprise."
"The Monitoring Committee for the privatisation of ANA lacked an independent review of the company prior to the French group Vinci buying ANA for €3,080 million. This is a matter that deserves to be discussed in parliament," according to the socialists as "there were no independent reviews."
In fact the Monitoring Committee released its final report six months after the completion of the deal. It had been charged with conducting an independent prior assessment as well as fixing a base price for ANA but the government left little time for this to be achieved - the socialists want to know why.
The final committee report showed that the Government had not defended the public interest before the deal, after the deal or for the future, according to the socialist MPs.
In the middle of the sale negotiations the government announced the go-ahead for a second Lisbon airport, seen as a material change to the ground rules, according to the socialists who point out also that “airport charges continue to increase, confirming an agreed economic deregulation contained within the deal." i.e. ANA is free to impose whatever charges it feels like, whatever the affect on passenger traffic and airline costs.