Marisa Garrido, Portugal's Secretary of State for Public Administration, risks becoming for the ruling Aliança Democrática coalition what Alexandra Reis was for the previous Socialist government, after it emerged that she received salary supplements during six years as director of Human Resources at RTP, Portugal's public broadcaster.
According to the news outlet Página Um, the supplements paid to Garrido between 2008 and 2014 are among the salary mechanisms whose regularity is now under scrutiny, following an audit by Portugal's General Inspectorate of Finance, known by its Portuguese initials IGF, the Finance Ministry's internal watchdog. The audit concluded that this type of payment has no legal basis.
Echoes of the Alexandra Reis case
It was the same inspectorate that, in 2023, found serious irregularities in the way Reis left TAP Air Portugal, the country's flag carrier, ruling that she should repay 266,000 euros of the 500,000 euros she had received as severance. The scandal, first revealed by Correio da Manhã, forced Reis to resign as Secretary of State of the Treasury, a post she had held for just 25 days.
Both cases share a common thread in the Ministry of Finance. It was run by the Socialist Party's Fernando Medina at the time of the Reis affair and is now led by Joaquim Miranda Sarmento of the Social Democratic Party, part of the ruling Aliança Democrática coalition. Unlike in the Reis case, it is not yet known how much Garrido allegedly received through the disputed payments.
Audit covers 12 million euros in payments
The IGF audit, which uncovered more than 12 million euros in payments of this kind, covers the period from 2018 to 2024. Garrido left RTP four years before that period began, but salary supplements were already standard practice during her time at the broadcaster. Correio da Manhã has previously reported that she was serving as director of Human Resources when several of these supplements were re-regulated.
Correio da Manhã asked the Ministry of Finance how much the Secretary of State for Public Administration had received through this route, and whether she was considering repaying it, but received no response. Miranda Sarmento's office also did not clarify whether Garrido had been questioned by the IGF or had asked to be excused from matters related to the case.
PS to summon IGF, Chega demands answers
The audit has prompted the Socialist Party to request hearings with the IGF before Parliament's Finance and Culture committees. The Socialists also want to question Nicolau Santos, chairman of RTP's Board of Directors, along with his predecessors in the role.
Rui Paulo Sousa, a member of parliament for the Chega party, said it was essential to determine whether Garrido was among the beneficiaries of the now-contested payments and under what conditions. Writing on social media, he also asked who had decided to make the payments, who had received them, and who had overseen them.
