Portimão mayor Isilda Gomes has created an internal squabble among her assembly members with those allied to ‘Servir Portimão’ saying they were not consulted over the Municipal Aid Fund rescue plan.
Servir Portimão has accused the socialist led council executive of launching a PR campaign to help see through the €130 million rescue plan which was never agreed on.
The Municipal Adjustment Programme (MAP) for Portimão Council was approved by the board of the Fundo de Apoio Municipal on April 1st causing much celebration in Portimão as councillors and the public at last saw an end to cuts, depleted services and tax increases.
The next step is that the whole application goes to the Court of Auditors and the last thing Gomes needs is bickering in the ranks from Servir Portimão which accuses the socialist mayor of trying to make out as if the rescue package had its approval.
The opposition claims that full council approval of the plan never happened, saying there were a few informal agreement on the latest version of the document that the executive presented to the executive Director of the Municipal Aid Fund, but no fnal sign-off.
This is at odds with the Municipal Aid Fund’s website which announced its formal approval of the fully submitted programmes for Portimão and Vila Real de Santo António councils
The Servir Portimão leader, councilor José Pedro Caçorino, claims that the document was not fully discussed, let alone approved, and criticises Gomes for not having a Plan B if the Court of Auditors rejects the rescue package.
José Pedro Caçorino says that in due time Servir Portimão “will 'publicly present its reasoned position on these plans."
Gomes has had 18 months to get to grips with the bombed out council whose previous mayor left the city with €130 million of debt, much of it in expensive short term borrowings.
This is not the time for derailing a rescue plan, however ‘unconsulted’ the oppostion might feel and as Plan A simply had to go through, a Plan B would have been an unwanted diversion.
Gomes is a former Regional Governor and has managed to get results. Whether or not she has taken a few procedural shortcuts is irrelevant when the city faces bankruptcy, tax increases and yet more cuts to its essential services.
