A full meeting of Silves council has given the go-ahead to Mayor Rosa Palma, to take all "appropriate measures to evaluate, within 120 days, the possibility of legal action against the former Mayors of Silves, Isabel Soares and Rogério Pinto."
The council statement, municipal speak for "sue them", reads that council members want to take the mayors to court for wasting council money in the Viga d’Ouro case as the public interest was ignored when administering public funds.
An earlier Court of Auditors' report concluded that the Viga d’Ouro contract led to unnecessary interest payments and court costs being incurred after the building company factored hundreds of invoices with the result that the council ended up in court with three banks, losing the case and having to pay interest on millions owed for a highly suspicious civil engineering projects.
The Court of Auditors report was all that remained before the council could take the former mayors to court to get back the money they had wasted, some €668,823.97.
Silves council says that on the basis of the decisions taken in the Viga D'Ouro case, which dates back to December 2004 and whose impact still affects council finances, interest on the €5 million debt should be recovered.
"The severity of the facts and financial offenses in question, led the Court of Auditors to conclude that there is material that justifies a proper process for effecting financial sanctions against these two former mayors by paying a fine to the State of between € 2,550 and €18,360 and repaying €668,823.97 in interest," notes the council.
See also: Silves: former mayor Isabel Soares responsible for 'gross procurement errors'
