The dismissed provider of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (SCML), Ana Jorge, denied on Wednesday the accusations of the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Maria do Rosário Ramalho, who stated that the members of the Board "benefited themselves". 

"I deeply deny this statement and it is necessary to justify what the self-benefit is", said Ana Jorge in statements to Renascença, recalling that 2023 was "a very hard year" and that she did everything so that the "Santa Casa would continue to be the Santa Casa, for the good of the people it has supported".

The official also added that it was a period "of great internal reorganizations", in which "solutions for the workers were found, mainly improving those who have lower salaries".

"We managed to maintain all the activity, we made great internal reorganizations. Therefore, I will have the opportunity, from today in eight days, to explain and bring data and detailed information about everything that the Board of the Santa Casa did", she explained.

Still on the minister's criticism regarding the salaries, Ana Jorge explained that the SCML made a company agreement that the minister considered should not have been made.

Ana Jorge said that, in the first meeting she had with the minister, she told her that "she should not have done it, but there was also no problem because it could be canceled".

"These were words, therefore, this says it all", she stressed, stating that in parliament she will say "more things".

At issue, it should be recalled, are statements by the minister who, in an interview with RTP, accused Ana Jorge and the managers of the SCML of having "benefited themselves". "Those on the board were even given a raise. We were surprised. (...) they benefited themselves, not at all the people who are in the operation", criticized the minister, referring to the fact that most of the workers of the Santa Casa earn the minimum wage.

Maria do Rosário Ramalho also accused the provider of "total inaction" and rejected the idea of "political cleansing" in the dismissal. 

"I have even heard that it was a political cleansing. It was nothing", guaranteed the minister, who justified the dismissal of Ana Jorge "for management reasons", accusing her of "total inaction" in the face of the financial crisis situation that she inherited from the previous administration, reiterating what the Government had already stated in the statement regarding the dismissal about the non-existence of a restructuring plan.

Regarding these statements, Ana Jorge was assertive: "I think that, in 12 days [in office in the Government], the minister will hardly have all the information about all the activity of the Santa Casa".

In statements to journalists on Wednesday in Lisbon, Ana Jorge revealed that "a reorganization plan for the Santa Casa was made, which will be presented to the Assembly of the Republic next week. 

"We have a plan that we will show in the Assembly of the Republic with the results, both in terms of increased revenue and in terms of expense reductions", she said.

Ana Jorge took office on May 2, 2023, chosen by the previous socialist Government of António Costa, and inherited an institution with serious financial difficulties, after the years of the pandemic and a process of internationalization of social games, carried out by the administration of the provider Edmundo Martinho, which may have caused losses in the order of 50 million euros.

After her dismissal, the provider wrote a letter to all the workers of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, in which she accused the Government of having dismissed her in a "rude, arrogant and slanderous way" and that she was taken by surprise.

[News updated at 11:08 am]

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