Bosch Portugal CEO and directors fired over “serious failures” on European funding subsidies – allegations some funding may have been improperly pocketed

Five executive directors at Bosch Portugal, including its CEO, Carlos Ribas, were fired last summer by the German company’s head office without the right to compensation or severance pay over accusations that they had committed “serious failures” in drawing up applications for and executing European funding, with fears the money may have been pocketed.

At the root of the accusation is an innovation project called THEIA (Automated Perception Driving), developed in partnership with Bosch Portugal and the University of Porto to create technology that would improve the sensory capacities of autonomous vehicles, and which got public funding of €17 million out of a total investment of €28 million.

The project, which started in July 2020 and ended in June 2023, was put on ice for three months at the request of Bosch so that they could count on the support of the then minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Elvira Fortunato, to help present the results of THEIA on September 26, 2023 at the Alfândega do Porto venue according to the business daily Negócios.

According to several sources, a few months before this in May, 2023, Carlos Ribas, who was then the technical director of the company’s Braga factory, received an e-mail from a staff member at the company’s development centre that was working on the THEIA project and who blew the whistle on some 55 contracted employees whose salaries were partially funded by EU subsidies and were contracted to work on the project but were, in fact, working on entirely different projects.

Ribas sent the complaint to Bosch’s compliance department which opened an investigation.

In the meantime, since the signing off on the project had mandatory deadlines to be met, all of the managers involved in the THEIA project got the green light from compliance to sign off on the project in order to submit a final payment request.

For more than a year nothing more was heard about the results of an internal investigation into THEIA and what happened to the EU subsidies and how they were spent.

However, the German group then decided to fire half of the senior management at its main factory in Portugal who, with the exception of one (André Reis who reached an agreement with the multinational) in turn decided to sue Bosch in court, demanding compensation.

Enabled improper cash-in of EU funding?

The accusation is that they may have “enabled the improper cashing in of the EU subsidies”. The word ‘pocketing’ has not been specifically used, but the implications are that the money went somewhere or to some people.

Contacted by the newspaper, Bosch confirmed the lawsuits in writing and stated that a legal investigation was underway carried out by the competent authorities.

“Bosch led an internal investigation in Portugal to look into “potential irregularities” regarding the management and development of innovation projects in the country” adding that the “company is strongly committed to meeting legal and other regulations, as well as an ethical company conduct procedures regardless of the positions or functions of the staff members involved”.

In an interview with Negócios, former CEO Carlos Ribas said: “It was with total surprise that I, together with the other staff members, were informed that we had been suspended without the company giving any grounds or specific information as to why” and had to wait six weeks to understand the nature of the allegations.

Bosch, which has been in Portugal since 1911, employs 7,000 people and exports 97% of its production made in factories in Braga and Aveiro. In 2023 it had a business turnover of €2.1Bn.