IGF audit finds 12.25 million euros in RTP subsidies without legal basis

What the audit found

The Inspeção Geral de Finanças (IGF) concludes that RTP paid subsidies between 2018 and 2024 that had no legal basis and no evidence of prior shareholder authorisation. The audit document, more than 800 pages long, puts the amount at about 12.25 million euros, although some early reports gave 12.5 million euros. The IGF considers the payments capable of constituting financial infractions, to be assessed by the Court of Audit (Tribunal de Contas). Expresso reported earlier that about 340 workers received these payments, at monthly amounts between 2,000 and 7,000 euros.

Presentation subsidy5.42

Seven other subsidies from individual negotiations4.04

Structure and coordination subsidies after posts ended2.79

Presentation subsidy

5.42 million euros

Seven other subsidies from individual negotiations

4.04 million euros

Structure and coordination subsidies after posts ended

2.79 million euros

Data from the article text

Breakdown of the payments

The largest item is the presentation subsidy, which the IGF says totalled 5.42 million euros over the period. The audit says it is not provided for in the company agreement and was created in 2013. Seven other subsidies, set through individual negotiations with workers, total 4.04 million euros. A further 2.79 million euros went to consolidating structure and coordination subsidies into pay after the related posts ended. Separately, a 2025 voluntary exit plan covered 135 workers at a cost of 7.8 million euros, while 105 entries, including service providers brought onto staff and new hires, limited its effect on headcount and personnel costs.

Recommendations with immediate effect

The IGF recommends that the RTP board review and regularise the subsidy regime, with a formal framework, transparency, uniformity and prior authorisation where required. It asks for an objective performance evaluation system to govern career progression. It also says pay tied to structure posts should end when those functions end, and that temporary needs be met with fixed-term contracts rather than service providers. The report lists all of these as immediate actions, and it is being made public while the process of selecting a new RTP board is under way.

The board's response and the unions' agreement

The RTP board, led by Nicolau Santos, disputes the IGF's reading of the payments. In its statement, the board says the subsidies have existed since the start of the century, crossed every administration and were never regarded as illegal. It argues they rest on the 2006 company agreement and on internal rules predating the 2011 pay restrictions, and that they make up less than 2% of personnel costs. An interpretive norm to the agreement, signed on 18 August by all representative union structures, clarifies the legal framework, the board says, without recognising the preliminary conclusions.

The workers' commission (Comissão de Trabalhadores) said the process has been marked by repeated manoeuvring around the report.

“Once again, we reject the twists and manoeuvres that have surrounded the report.”

The commission says nine subsidies were identified, some of which no longer exist, and that the alleged irregularity is their absence from the company agreement. It rejects any suggestion of fraud or misappropriation of public money, as the IGF did not find such cases.

Disclosure and the government's role

The board's communiqué puts its complaint in its own terms.

“The final report, which has not yet been received by the company or the administrators concerned, is already the subject of news in several media outlets.”

The Ministry of the Presidency told an official source that it received the report through the Ministry of Finance at the same moment it reached Parliament, and that the government does not comment on its content. The finance minister approved the audit on Thursday, 5 November, and the report was sent to Parliament early that afternoon. The government says the audit was carried out at Parliament's request and in total independence. Nicolau Santos said the administrators are calm about the findings and will wait for the assessment of their applications for new mandates.