The Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security argues that the dismissed provider of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (SCML) "found a financial cancer, but treated it with paracetamol".

Maria do Rosário Ramalho, who is being heard by the Committee on Labour, Social Security and Inclusion on the situation at Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, argues that the institution's financial situation worsened with the management of Ana Jorge and admits that the losses with the internationalization could reach 80 million.

The minister reiterated that this was not a political dismissal, but that it had to do with the "very serious situation" of the institution and the fact that the Board had not acted appropriately in the face of this situation.

"The very serious financial situation of the Santa Casa dates back to the previous Board, but it worsened with the previous provider [Ana Jorge]", she said.

Maria do Rosário Ramalho explains that, "despite the situation of near collapse found" by Ana Jorge, "no strategic recovery plan was implemented".

"And I say that it was not because the only measure that was communicated to us by the provider - perhaps there were others, but we had no information - was the elimination of the remuneration supplements of 40 executives worth approximately one million euros, which is very positive and significant, of course", she said.

For the current minister, "the positive effect of this measure was cancelled out by the increase in personnel expenses", which went from 147.6 million in 2022 to 151 million in 2023. "According to the approved activity plan, they will increase to 162 million euros in 2024, that is, personnel costs have increased by around 11 million euros since 2023", she concluded.

"To address the problem of Santa Casa Global, the provider decided, in compliance with a dispatch from the previous minister, to suspend the internationalization operation of the games and to liquidate Santa Casa Global. However, this decision was executed without a divestment plan that could mitigate its contingencies", she also explained. "Now, according to information provided by the provider, the costs of these contingencies could reach 30 million euros. Therefore, in this operation of Santa Casa Global, the loss went from 50 million to an estimated loss of 80 million: a difference of 30 million.

Heard by the deputies, Maria do Rosário Ramalho also considered it "inexplicable" that, to face the problem of the management company of the Hospital da Cruz Vermelha, Ana Jorge suspended the sale operation of this company that had been underway since March and assumed the "maintenance of Santa Casa's responsibilities with this operation, which cost 29 million euros".

"In 2024, she transferred other responsibilities worth around three million euros to Parpública", she added.

With regard to revenue, in the view of the supervisory authority, "there was a clear inability" on the part of the Board "to cope with its respective decrease". "First of all, the revenue from the value of the games maintained the downward trend: from 195 million euros in 2022, they fell to 191 million in 2023. However, strangely, the activity and budget plan that was approved for 2024 establishes, in this item, a forecast of a 12% increase, that is, 214 million. I do not understand the rationale for making this forecast with the downward trend that was occurring", the minister also said.

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