Portimão council’s application to the government’s Municipal Aid Fund finally has been approved by the fund’s committee which 'helps the financial recovery of councils in difficulties.?
No council in Portugal was faced with more difficulty than Portimão's which was left with debts of €130 million when previous mayor Manuel da Luz ended his term of office marked by cronyism, waste, lack of management ability and corruption.
The incoming mayor, the former Governor of the Algarve, Isilda Gomes, told Sul Informação last Friday that approval for the long-term financial restructuring loan has come in after "more than a year of hard work and negotiations."
Acceptance of the money needs formally to be approved at council and full assembly meetings and then there will be a final signing off by the Tribunal de Contas.
This restructuring money at last will enable Portimão council to do more than tread water.
"This is excellent news for the Council of Portimão, for our creditors and for the whole economy of the region," said Isilda Gomes.
The fiscally incontinent former mayor Manuel da Luz started an application process for funds under the Support for the Local Economy programme in an attempt to dig himself out of the financial hole that he himself had created. This was in 2010 and thankfully was unsuccessful as he would have wasted that too.
Gomes also confirmed that the Municipal Adjustment Plan approved under the Municipal Aid Fund application will see the "extinction of Portimão Urbis and the incorporation of all Urbis debts.”
The plan ties the council into some well defined expenditure and income targets over the next 25 years. One of the plus sides is that suppliers to the council can at last get paid, many of whom have waited years for payment.
Gomes has managed to pay some suppliers, "€36 million has been paid to banks and other creditors, many of them small businesses" and in May 2015, the council paid off 479 suppliers owed less than €50,000 each. This cost €3.6 million.
Gomes commented, "from now on, things are set. The Municipal Adjustment Plan guides and defines what can and can not do."
Portimão has been pretty much at a standstill with even essential services threadbare and struggling, with streets and roads in desperate need of repair.
"We have little money, but managed carefully, there are always investments that can go forward," concluded Isilda Gomes whose credibility locally is now at a high point.
As for Portimão Urbis, questions remain as this council owned company was used to syphon funds from the council into individuals' pockets yet there has been no court case, just a long investigation that started nearly three years ago.
Portimão council is taking over the debt of Urbis but if much of this debt was due to theft and criminal activity, the local ratepayers rightly should question why they have to pay for the illegal enrichment of those at the trough.
Luís Carito and Jorge Campos, formerly the vice-mayor and a councilor at Portimão council; the head of Portimão Urbis, Lélio Branca, and Artur Curado and Luís Marreiros from Pictures Portugal all were arrested in June 2013 on suspicion of corruption, maladministration and money laundering.
Luís Carito is the one who swallowed a document that he snatched back from a Judicial Police officer during a search of his house.
There also remain suspicions over the role possibly played by Urbis into illicit financing the International Autodrome.
The inquiries into financial crimes inevitably will include former mayor Manuel da Luz whose earnings during his term of office clearly and significantly exceeded his mayoral salary.
For 'Portimão corruption investigation spreads to football stadium' news item, (Jan 2014) see:
