Um exemplo para os nossos governantes
The bank’s previous management, led by Eric Daniels, had deliberately kept funding maturities short to minimise the cost of financing and maximise interest margins. But within months of Mr Horta-Osório’s arrival, it was shown up as a high-risk strategy, as US money market funds – a core supplier of short-term finance – began pulling funding out of Europe at a rate of $30bn a month. The funding mismatch so haunted the chief executive that colleagues are convinced it triggered the insomnia and exhaustion that forced him to take a two-month recuperative leave of absence at the end of 2011. “The bank was in worse shape than I thought when I took the job,” Mr Horta-Osório says. The precariousness of the situation made it a lonely time, he admits. “Those are the types of problems a CEO has to deal with on his own and cannot share with many people because it [would be] counter-productive.” Today, the issue is largely resolved. A reportagem já tem quase um mês, mas à luz de acontecimentos recentes que tornam a mostrar que há gente no Governo que não está à altura da responsabilidade do cargo que desempenha, sobretudo nas actuais circunstâncias, lembrei-me de a recordar. Bem sei que nenhum governante ganha propriamente o mesmo que o super-banqueiro português em Londres, nem gerir um país é igual a gerir um banco, mas gostava de sentir nos nossos governantes a mesma entrega, o mesmo sentido de responsabilidade e a enorme competência que reconheço a Horta Osório. Infelizmente, na maior parte dos casos, não é isso que sinto. E sempre que os nossos governantes falham, pagamos nós.