The loans that the Vila Real de Santo António Council (VRSA) contracted with the State in recent years did not serve, as was supposed, to alleviate the municipality's long-term debt nor to reduce the time it takes the municipality to pay suppliers , but to increase them, accused the CDU of VRSA.
The Vila Real communists reacted to the results of the General Inspection of Finance report on the implementation of the Local Economy Support Program (PAEL) in Vila Real de Santo António, made in 2015, but which was only released recently, which contains elements which "are of extraordinary gravity".
In a political statement made at the April 2nd Chamber meeting, CDU councilor Álvaro Leal accused the PSD executive – then led by Luís Gomes – of “repeatedly inflating revenue expectations and masking expenditure forecasts”, as well as of use “the PAEL loan for current expenses, not alleviating long-term debt”.
“They extended the time of debt to suppliers, they did not realize, neither remotely nor even close, the expected revenues from the sale of assets or with parking meters and significantly increased the risk of debt expansion through lawsuits in court litigation. In other words, instead of using the money to reduce the debt, they used it to increase it», he accused.
According to the CDU, the inspectors who analyzed the VRSA Chamber's 2014 accounts “found that the loan was not repaid in accordance with the commitments, revenue objectives and other contracting clauses. The debt stock, the budget balance, the net indebtedness were also not met and debts were accumulated due to problems in litigation. Debts to third parties did not decrease and the delay in payments increased”.
“The PSD executive failed to provide information to the DGAL, hid 5,7 million euros in more debt from the control authorities. As for the management reports, it hid information about the execution of the PAEL and did not provide the necessary information to the Municipal Assembly. By omission of the PSD, the municipality violated, in formal terms, the substance and objectives to which it was linked, a fact that is susceptible to fine”, added Álvaro Leal.
This leads the communists to accuse the PSD “of lying to the population, to the opposition forces, but also to the institutions and authorities themselves”. Álvaro Leal argues that it was poor management that led, more recently, to the municipality of Vila Real. to join another municipal financing program launched by the Central State, the Municipal Support Fund (FAM).
For the CDU, VRSA is “a municipality that is today strangled with debt, paralyzed services, demobilized workers, in a slow agony waiting for the nightmare to end. A municipality that is hostage to the FAM, with 33 million to pay the bank and another 25 million to pay to suppliers, mired in debt and interest that are not few, in burdensome and prolonged conditions that the bank imposes on those who default».
The communists stress, moreover, that "it was never in agreement with the municipality's adhesion to any of these programs (PAEL and FAM), "because of what they represented in the conditioning of decisions - sale of assets, increases in fees and tariffs, reduction of workers and other obligations – and because the CDU defends another path».
“But the PSD's option was to continue, via the PAEL – confirming that in itself none of these instruments can correct structurally wrong policies – the regalia in the management of public resources. This report gives us a short image of a management that has been going on for 14 years and that has been disastrous for the municipality. We do not know of any reports on later periods, but it is legitimate to ask: what happened afterwards? In 2016? In 2017? In 2018?”, concludes Álvaro Leal.
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