“Arrow Global? Never heard of it until December 2015” claims the former Minister of Finance, Maria Luís Albuquerque, in one of her trademark statements that perhaps lacks the full credibility only built up in careers defined by honesty and openness.
The new employer of the former Minister manages a bad debt portfolio of €5.5 billion and counts among its Portuguese clients, Banif, Millennium BCP, Montepio, Santander and Banco Popular.
For those working in finance in the public and private sectors in Portugal the name Arrow is one that most instantly would recognise yet Albuquerque seems to have been too busy burying the bad news of Banif's imminent collapse and not sorting the ripped-off BES depositors.
In an interview with RTP on Thursday evening, Albuquerque said that she had "never heard" of Arrow Global until December 2015, when she was asked to take up a non-executive directorship on a salary of €5,000 a month, in addition to her MP’s salary.
By accepting this seemingly out-of-the-blue job offer, Albuquerque has laid herself open questions of ethics, poor judgement and certainly bad taste.
As for accusations that Arrow has benefitted from Portuguese tax credits, these reliefs were legitimately applied to two companies subsequently acquired by Arrow.
"If at some point I had given this company some kind of special treatment or some kind of benefit, I would not work for this company now in the future," she said.
As for holding State information that could be useful to Arrow’s business of sucking up bad debts and applying its unique brand of ‘customer solution’ to make sure money is paid over, "The information I have is macroeconomic and is not at all privileged" argued Maria Luís Albuquerque.
It does seem that technically the former minister has avoided any strictly legal problems in taking the Arrow job but as for her image, can it sink lower? Her move smacks of financial desperation and certainly displays a lack of grasp.
