The recent Consolidated Accounts Verification Report No. 10/2019, by the Court of Auditors, reopened a war of words between the “Servir Portimão” coalition and members of the CDS Portimonense Council, on the one hand, and the municipal executive led by the socialist Isilda Gomes, on the other.
In a statement, the centrists and members of the opposition coalition recall that, through this Report, the Court of Auditors refused to ratify the accounts of the managements of the Municipality of Portimão for 2009, 2010 and 2011.
The conclusions of this report, says the communiqué signed by José Pedro Caçorino, councilor elected by “Servir Portimão”, and Hugo Mariano, president of the centrist council, demonstrate “the unavoidable responsibility of the Socialist Party and its local elected representatives in those years (many of them still in functions in the Municipal Assembly), which always approved, in an uncritical and irresponsible way, the budgets and the rendering of accounts referring to the mentioned financial years».
They even claim that “it was the illegal practices used by the PS during those years, well reflected in the aforementioned report, that contributed a lot to the construction of the dire financial situation that Portimão still suffers, which has been and will be paid by the families and companies of the county, with municipal taxes and fees always set within the maximum limits».
The Court of Auditors' Report, they argue, confirms “what the CDS-PP of Portimão has always said, through its representative in office (in the 2009/2013 term), in the Municipal Assembly: the PS executives – with the connivance of their elected at the aforementioned meeting - repeatedly and consciously committed to an unrealistic and irresponsible policy of spending, of contracting short and medium/long term debt far beyond the legal limits, seriously compromising the financial sustainability of the municipality and the future of the its public intervention'.
Despite the fact that the Report refers to years prior to the inauguration of the current mayor, the centrists guarantee that the problems "still persist in the Portimão Municipal Council."
In his opinion, the current president Isilda Gomes and her executive, «in almost six years of functions at the head of the Portimão Municipal Council, have not managed or were unable to resolve» these problems, such as the «internal control norm ( NCI) approved by the executive body, on 08/11/2006", which "has not been revised or updated to date, proving to be outdated, not contributing to the maintenance of an effective internal control system".
On the other hand, they accuse, "the valuation and inventory of municipal assets, the excess of total debt and the regularization of situations with the municipal company Portimão Urbis remain to be regularized".
Contacted by Sul Informação, the Mayor's office classifies the CDS and “Servir Portimão” communiqué as “irresponsible”, by launching “permanently disinformation campaigns, in a shameless attempt to deceive the citizens of Portimão and transmit a bad image of the municipality that does not fit in with the same with the democratic, dialogic, rigorous and transparent posture of the current executive».
Assuming that past executives' mistakes are true, the current executive even remembers that «this report by the Court of Auditors has as one of its main sources the report of the management audit requested by the President of the City Council in 2014, within the scope the internal verification of the management accounts of the years in question, which clearly demonstrates the posture of transparency and rigor that the municipal executives led by the President have adopted since taking office at the end of 2013».
In its response, the office of Isilda Gomes accuses the elected members of the CDS/PP of "deliberately" omitting the fact that the Court of Auditors' report "shows that the nonconformities detected in the management accounts of 2009, 2010 and 2011 are up to date corrected'.
They also omit, accuses the president, that the technical recommendations made in that report do not put “in question the financial results and financial sustainability of the Municipality”.
«The Municipality of Portimão regrets that the CDS/PP continues to have many difficulties in accepting that the measures of rigor and transparency put into practice, since 2013, in the municipal management, by this executive, have allowed the Municipality of Portimão to have today the right accounts, a fact that has been praised by various regulatory bodies of local government in Portugal».
For Isilda Gomes, «the CDS/PP has not yet accepted that the rigor, the good management of this executive together with the candidacy for the Municipal Support Fund (FAM) have allowed to resolve the serious financial problems facing the Municipality».
In fact, underlined in your reply sent to the Sul Informação, «the results are visible to all: Since 2013, the Municipality's overall indebtedness has been reduced by around 41 million euros; Payment terms were reduced from 4628 days to 28 days at the end of 2018; No more late payments and short-term debt; Net Results went from negative 8 million in 2013 to the best financial results ever in the history of the Municipality of Portimão, namely 20 million euros in 2017 and 16 million euros in 2018; Such results catapulted the Municipality of Portimão to 7th position in the ranking of local authorities at national level in terms of economic results and to 39th position nationally in terms of reduction of liabilities, in 2017».
For the centrists and independents of the “Servir Portimão” coalition, all this is nothing more than “masking reality and skilfully using numbers”.
In light of this position, the Municipality of Portimão challenges «the elected members of the CDS|PP to report to the competent authorities any information they have regarding possible illegal practices in the management of the current executive».
It also challenges them to put an end "once and for all with the policy of suspicion and falsehoods by which they have guided their political action over the past few years."
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