The Algarve’s councils have challenged the proposed privatisation of the region’s waste collection and treatment company Algar on the grounds of ‘public interest.’
The mayors’ group for the Algarve (Amal) has issued an objection to privatisation plans for the company, arguing that it "should only proceed if all municipalities agree" - which they are unlikely to.
There at 16 councils in the Algarve which between them own 44% of the shares in Algar, the company now run by the disgraced former mayor of Tavira, and then Faro, Macario Correia.
At issue is the Government’s plan to privatise the General Company for Development (Empresa Geral do Fomento- EGF) which holds 56% of the shares in Algar.
The draft decree law establishes the ground rules for how a new owner and the region’s councils will work together after the company is taken private, but Amal believes that the guidelines "overlook" the role of municipalities in the whole area of the management of municipal waste.
"The question of the transfer to private ownership should at least have the expressed agreement of all municipalities," said the mayors’ group whose board approved its opposition to the privatisation of Algar and are unlikely to welcome a commercial partner into its fold.
The mayors’ statement received today read that waste company Algar was created as a public entity which is why the municipalities "agreed to the transfer of the collection and processing of municipal waste to the company without going through any public procurement procedures."
"It is not permissible to force municipalities to use, on an exclusive basis, a private company," reads the statement.
As far as the Algarve’s mayors can see the new draft law "protects the private operator to the detriment of the public sector by imposing a system of exclusivity on the waste collection, with penalties for non-compliance."
Macario Correia was handed the job of running waste service Algar in February 2014 after leaving Faro council. It is unlikely that a new commercial owner of the Algarve’s waste business would keep him as Chief Executive.
