The secretary general of the Ministry of the Environment, Alexandra Carvalho, will be the new president of the board of directors of Transtejo/Soflusa, replacing Marina Ferreira who resigned in March, the office of Minister Duarte Cordeiro indicated this Tuesday.
Alexandre Santos, who between 2019 and 2022 was a member of the board of directors of the Organismo de Produção Artística and, from 2013 to 2019, was a member of the board of directors of the Entidade Reguladora dos Serviços Energéticos, will be a member of the financial area .
Alexandra Carvalho and Alexandre Santos are expected to take up their duties on Thursday, according to a note from the office of the Minister for the Environment and Climate Action, which oversees urban transport.
The board of directors of Transtejo/Soflusa, which ensures river connections on the Tagus River, asked for the resignation of functions on March 16, after a report by the Court of Auditors (TdC) that accused the company of “lacking the truth” and of practices illegal and irrational.
According to the note from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Action, the appointment of Alexandra Carvalho and Alexandre Santos has already received a favorable opinion from the Commission for Recruitment and Selection of Public Administration.
“The third element of the company’s board of directors will be appointed shortly” by the ministries of Environment and Climate Action and Finance, the note also reads.
With a degree in Law from the University of Lisbon, Alexandra Carvalho was appointed in July 2018 as secretary-general of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Action, having held the position since 2014 on a replacement basis.
Alexandra Carvalho was also, by virtue of her functions, director of the Environmental Fund since January 2017 and, in the previous 10 years, she was director of the international relations department of the then Ministry of Environment and Land Planning. In 2007 and 2021, she coordinated the Ministry’s participation in the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union.
The outgoing president of Transtejo/Soflusa’s board of directors asked for her resignation following a report by the Court of Auditors (TdC), which accused the company of “failing to tell the truth” and of illegal and irrational practices.
At issue was the purchase of nine batteries, for a value of 15.5 million euros, in an additional contract to another contract previously inspected by the TdC for the acquisition, for 52.4 million euros, of ten (one of them already with battery, for testing) new ships with battery-electric propulsion, to ensure the public passenger transport service between the two banks of the Tagus.
At a press conference held on the day the report was known, the chairman of the outgoing board of directors denied that there had been any “intention to harm the State” and classified the considerations of the Court of Auditors as “offensive and outrageous”.
Transtejo is responsible for connecting Seixal, Montijo, Cacilhas and Trafaria/Porto Brandão, in the Setúbal district, to Lisbon, while Soflusa makes the crossing between Barreiro, also in the Setúbal district, and Terreiro do Paço, in Lisbon .
The companies have a common administration.
