FERNANDO ARAÚJO LEmbra that public managers can be dismissed “by mere convenience”, but if they are at least 12 months in a row in office (as in some cases) “they are entitled to compensation.”
The former executive director of SNS Fernando Araújo wants the Court of Auditors to analyze the Decided by the government and, in case of harmful management, obliges those responsible to pay the expense.
Num Fernando Araújo, who resigned from the Executive Directorate of the National Health Service (DE-SNS) in April 2024 claiming that he did not want to be an obstacle to the government in policies and measures that he considered necessary to implement, criticizes the removal of some administrations and says That the new teams entered, but the management model remained.
“It maintains the exact management model, shaped in the Statute of Health Institutions, EPE,” he writes.
Fernando Araújo also points to the dismissal of ULS Algarve public managers, “with the only argument of ‘impressing a new configuration to the Governance model’, and the ULS of Lezíria, the Leiria region and the Alto Alentejo, with the same argument, without having “any changes to the governance model”.
“They are interpreted as illegal dismissals”
Remember that public managers can be exonerated “by mere convenience”, but if they are at least 12 months in a row in office (as happens in some cases) “they are entitled to compensation.”
It also insists, citing recent judgments, that even if the leaders are dismissed before completing a year of duties, if the decision is not substantiated, the exemptions “are interpreted as illegal discharges, giving the right to compensation” “.
In the case of Algarve and Alto Minho, “compensation may be over 500 thousand euros,” he says.
In the case of Lezíria, Leiria and Alto Alentejo, “they can reach the 650 thousand euros,” writes Fernando Araújo, stressing:
“We are talking about a set of any losses greater than one million euros, even though they depend on the will of the GP [gestores públicos] request them and eventual litigation in court “.
“These are the ‘hidden’ values”
These costs need to “add the expense of the integration of new leaders, the knowledge of the institutions, the vision and strategy of the NHS, and, in many cases, the knowledge of the operational aspects of public administration,” he recalls.
“In the meantime, the institutions stop and the costs increase. These are the ‘hidden’ values of inaction, but the most harmful to the institutions. Starting all over again,” considers the former SNS executive editor, adding:
“Beyond the financial dimension, they demotivate and move the best away.”
“The price is greater than a quarter of a million euros for each group of militants that settle in the leadership of an institution. Apparently more exonerations of this type will be planned in the coming days. Who pays them, may ask. The answer is simple: all: all us”.
Remembering that in about 17 months that lasted his term in the De-SNS “there was no dismissal of any member of the health institutions”, Fernando Araújo suggests that the Court of Auditors “could evaluate the decisions made and, in case of harmful management, force those responsible to bear personally with the expense. “
“It would be extremely pedagogical,” he says.
