The Court of Auditors this week forced presidents of five chambers in the country, including that of Faro, to refund part of the fees received as holiday allowances or unpaid holiday allowance.
No case of Faro, the decision covers the last three presidents of the Chamber of Faro, with José Apolinário being forced to return around 9500 euros and the current mayor Macário Correia 3180 euros.
The news published yesterday by the newspaper «Público» has already led to reactions on the part of the two politicians, with Macário Correia calling into question the way in which the information was conveyed, since, he assured, he had already returned the money that the Court of Auditors identified in the judgment now released.
"I did not do so as required by any court or by imposition of any other entity", assured the President of the Chamber of Faro, in a statement sent to the newsrooms.
The amount that Macário Correia returned was related to the Christmas subsidy for the year 2009, the same in which he was elected and in which he was only head of the Chamber of Faro about two months. However, the calculation of the subsidy to be received by the new mayor, made by the services, covered the entire year.
“In 2009, I took the initiative of requesting the administrative services of the Municipal Councils where I worked in October of that year, to be very careful in the calculations inherent to the salaries and allowances that concerned me”, revealed Macário Correia.
"Later, a long time ago, I was informed that they had made a mistake in the calculation and immediately and on my own initiative I returned what I had wrongly received," he added.
José Apolinário has also already reacted to the situation through the social network Facebook and confirmed, precisely, that his successor and opponent in the last municipal elections has already regularized the situation.
«The rigor and the truth oblige me to say that, from the very beginning, the current president of the CM Faro defended compliance with the position of the auditors of the Court of Auditors. He returned as I already did, and I'm going to replace the budget for vacations not taken, recognized by all workers, but not by local elected officials», reads José Apolinário's Facebook profile.
"And, it should be noted, it was the internal services that, at least in 2005 and 2009, considered that we were entitled to the funds now considered undue by the audit of the Court of Auditors," he added.
Macário Correia, in his statement, also questioned the editorial criteria of the newspapers that advanced the news and that highlighted his name, despite the fact that there were several municipalities and mayors involved.
"But curiously, the only holder of municipal political office of the aforementioned who resolved the deception by free initiative and has been prominent news for a long time with a title and photograph in a condemnation style, while the others, in Faro and not only that, which have not yet complied with, even though they have been notified by the Court, a long time ago, the discreet and sympathetic part of the texts is reserved, or they are not even in the news», he said.
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