One month and three major exemptions: Government risks paralyzing key sectors in Portugal

They are “top” professionals who the Government treated as “packet boys”. This is how Public Administration experts look at the dismissals of Fernando Araújo, José Barros Correia and Ana Jorge. And they launch the warning: “This type of abrupt changes could lead to the administration of these sectors being paralyzed”

One of the most respected health professionals in the sector, a chief superintendent who defended better salaries for the police for several months and a former Minister of Health who received several honors from the Order of Doctors. Fernando Araújo, José Barros Correia and Ana Jorge were all responsible for critical areas of the country and ended up being replaced just over a month after the new Government took office. “These are important figures and there is a common sense problem here”, highlights João Nogueira de Almeida, full professor at the University of Coimbra and specialist in Public Administration. These decisions “do nothing to help the little stability that the Government has”.

João Nogueira de Almeida adds that these are positions “that require a lot of learning time” and that are in themselves “very complicated from the perspective of people management”. In this way, he says, “this type of abrupt changes can lead to the administration of these sectors paralyzing”. ‘

In the same vein, sociologist Norberto Rodrigues, university professor and specialist in Public Administration, considers that the “political nature” associated with these three dismissals could come to condition the sphere of activity of the next person responsible. “In the case of the new director of the PSP, this is paradigmatic”, he explains, highlighting that, “as there is no clear and well-founded reason for replacing the current one, the idea that remains is that the new one appears only by party political decision” . “It becomes”, points out the specialist, “another element of the Government and not a force that could balance the relationship between the police and the Executive”.

National director of the PSP was dismissed. Justifications were “insufficient”

José Barros Correia learned of his dismissal at 6:45 pm this Tuesday from the newly installed Minister of Internal Administration Margarida Blasco. Having only been in office for six months, the chief superintendent who replaced Magina da Silva was always vocal when protests by police forces reached their hottest point in the first months of this year. He accompanied the police in their requests for “better salaries” and, even when the demonstrations escalated – leading to the cancellation of football games and large gatherings promoted by inorganic groups -, he was one of those who stood alongside the professionals.

It only took a couple of hours for, on the same day, the police unions to turn against this decision to remove José Barros Correia, which was justified by the Minister of Internal Administration for reasons of “operational restructuring”. Bruno Pereira, president of the National Union of Police Officers, admitted that he was “completely surprised” by this dismissal “in a period of high turbulence” and has already asked the minister for clarification on the reasons that led to the dismissal. “Changing a general director all the time is not good for any organization”, he stressed.

For sociologist Norberto Rodrigues, who worked as a senior technician at the Ministry of Internal Administration for several years, the way in which the PSP director was removed from his position brings “complicated instability” to the sector. “The police highly value stability and hierarchy and this can be called into question because it comes to the conclusion that a director can easily be sent away without there being a plausible justification.”

The name chosen by the new Government to lead the PSP – the third director in less than a year – is Luís Carrilho, former head of security for Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Cavaco Silva. On the one hand, points out Norberto Rodrigues, “there is the idea that Montenegro wants someone closer to its party to try to appease not only the unions, but also the power of inorganic movements”.

On the other hand, Carrilho “is a man who spent a long time abroad, in international organizations – he was appointed police advisor to the United Nations and director of the police division in the UN Department of Peace Operations – so I don’t know to what extent he has a relationship very close to the normal exercise of police functions”, he highlights, adding that he has a handicap, “which is coming to replace a man who did nothing to justify, at least in a formal way, his departure”.

Fernando Araújo: departure on a collision course with the new minister

After 15 months at the head of the Executive Directorate of the National Health Service (SNS), Fernando Araújo submitted his resignation at the end of April and is another case in which his departure occurred on a collision course with the new Government. Non-partisan, and one of the most recognized health professionals in the country, the former president of Centro Hospitalar Universitário São João even expressed his desire to remain in office when Montenegro was elected prime minister.

But everything changed when the new Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, issued an order asking the Executive Directorate to prepare a report on what had been done by the entity since its creation. The governor gave 60 days to Fernando Araújo who, as she said in a statement, only found out about this wish through an email sent simultaneously to the media.

Less than a week later, Araújo used the same technique: in a statement sent to newsrooms and the minister’s office, he said that he would resign immediately after completing the report requested by Ana Paula Martins, also warning that he would waive any compensation. The minister agreed to the request without first leaving a new barb: the new executive director will move forward with “effective reforms”.

The two would be involved in a new controversy days later, when Ana Paula Martins asked the Executive Directorate to present a health plan for the summer. Fernando Araújo refused to do so because he was “leaving” and because he did not know what “policies” the new minister wanted to implement.

From a practical point of view, recognizes João Nogueira de Almeida, this change in the Executive Directorate of the SNS is “problematic”, as “it took Fernando Araújo a long time to get things back on track”. That time, he says, will now have to be repeated by the next manager who, “will have to set up teams, prepare new measures and talk to all the people involved”.

This time, points out the university professor, that the country cannot do without: “Health is a critical area and we are now entering the summer period, which is full of tourists and a large number of visitors to hospitals and not only is there no a plan, like we have the head of the SNS cut off”.

Accusations of self-benefit and “lying”: Ana Jorge removed in war with minister

Faced with losses of around 53 million euros and in the midst of an international expansion that she herself recognized as a “disaster”, Ana Jorge, former Minister of Health, was fired from her position as ombudsman at Santa Casa da Misericórdia and ended up for being accused by the minister who dismissed her of having held the position for her own benefit. This is just a few days before this forced departure earns him compensation.

Upon announcing her dismissal, at the end of April, Labor Minister Maria do Rosário Palma accused Ana Jorge of “total inaction” and justified the decision with “severely negligent actions” that affected the institution’s management. This Tuesday, he returned to the charge with accusations of another intensity: “Those at the table (of the SCM led by Ana Jorge) were even increased. We were surprised. (…) they benefited themselves, not at all, the people who are in the operation”.

Ana Jorge counterattacked the minister’s accusations. “They are lies,” she said, stressing that she will go to Parliament to present documents that show her thesis. “With 50 years of Public Service, it was the first time I was treated in this way and this is something impossible to accept at this stage of my life. Therefore, I feel very mistreated”, she said, in an interview with TSF.

For public administration experts interviewed by CNN Portugal, this “is an unfortunate” case for the Government. “Firstly, the accusations that were raised are unfounded, then in public life there must be some respectful behavior towards high positions”, says João Nogueira de Almeida.

The new Government, says sociologist Norberto Rodrigues, has had the “problem of not speaking properly with the professionals they are dismissing”: “We are talking about highly categorized people, who have a life dedicated, often, to their work and which cannot be discarded and treated as if they were a simple bellboy”.