The president of Infraestruturas de Portugal António Laranjo assured the mayors of the Algarve that he would send "by the end of the week" the answer to the clarifications that the Court of Auditors (TC) asked for on the contract for the requalification of the EN125 in the Eastern Algarve.
Like Sul Informação advanced, the delay in obtaining the TC visa, which will allow progress with the works on the EN125 between Olhão and Vila Real de Santo António (VRSA), is currently dependent on a response from the public company, requested in March by the court.
Faced with this situation, the Secretary of State for Infrastructure Guilherme d'Oliveira Martins, who was this Monday in Faro to announce urgent works in the short term, as well as a major intervention in 2019, reaffirmed that the delay was due to «the very complex renegotiation of the Rotas do Algarve Litoral sub-concession carried out by the previous Government, which removed this section from the sub-concessionaire's responsibilities, which led to an amendment to the contract».
“We are talking about a renegotiation process for a contract that was signed in September and submitted for a visa in October. This process has several steps, several requests for clarification, it is very complicated. The process was returned and submitted again by IP, in due time», said the government official, on the sidelines of a meeting at AMAL – Comunidade Intermunicipal do Algarve.
The TC's last request for clarification “entered in March” and the answer will now be given. At least, that is what was said at the meeting, as revealed by several mayors present – the journalists were not able to attend this meeting.
“IP recognized that the process was complex and understaffed. I don't know if it secondary the EN125 process or not, it is certain that it did not give a timely response to the TC. It seems that they will respond this week», said the mayor of Castro Marim Francisco Amaral, which on April 10th met with a representative of the Court of Auditors, which revealed that this body was waiting for the company's response to proceed with the process.
It remains to be seen whether the answers that will now be given by Infraestruturas de Portugal to the TC will clarify all doubts or whether there will be a need to provide further clarifications. It is certain that, without a visa, there are no deep requalification works on the EN125, between Olhão and VRSA.
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