The 2019 Management Report and Accountability of the Municipality of Monchique were rejected, last Friday, at the Municipal Assembly. Rui André, president of the Chamber, says, however, that this is a “merely political” lead and that, “contrary to what the PS did when it was in the Chamber, we are not hammering numbers”.
The document was rejected with 9 votes against, from 6 deputies from the PS, from the two elected from the Citizens for Monchique movement and from the elected from the CDU.
The two presidents of the Parish Council, elected by the PS, from Monchique and Alferce, abstained, while six elected from the PSD voted in favour, with one of the Social Democratic deputies missing from the session.
According to the council of the PS de Monchique, «the Socialist Party bench, after presenting several questions to the PSD executive about the management report and the rendering of accounts, pointing out the absence of circumstantial elements, the non-compliance with the rules of the Official Accounting Plan of the Local Authorities (POCAL) and, once again, a low budget execution and a negative result of the exercise, voted against the document».
The socialists explain their lead to the accounts with the absence "of some elements with regard to bank reconciliations (namely the Municipality account, where the movements of credit cards held by the executive permanently) are carried out, as well as due the inexistence of Cost Accounting and Internal Control System and of the Annex to the Financial Statements, elements that the PS says are necessary to "comply with the rules" of the POCAL, being mandatory their existence to "provide the assessment of the financial situation and of the Municipality'.
Rui André, speaking to the Sul Informação, refutes these criticisms, saying that «this is a purely political lead, in a Municipal Assembly constituted mostly by elements that do not support the executive. This has been a constant practice over the last few years», he explains.
On the motives listed by the socialists, Rui André says that they are “allegations that don't make any sense. Regarding bank reconciliations, some values that did not arrive on time are still to be released. In addition, cunningly, they return to the issue of credit cards. I am happy to ask the president of the Municipal Assembly to schedule a point at the next assembly just to talk about credit cards. Because I will be happy to show you that there is no problem. There was an issue that was clarified and the Court of Auditors has already filed the case».
Rui André even says he can “show that, for example, in the last month of the PS in the Chamber of Monchique [in 2009], more was spent on credit cards than since I've been at the Chamber until today and it's been 10 years. I want to expose this at the meeting, so that it is clear what we are talking about».
In a note sent to the newsrooms, the PS council recalls that, in September 2019, the DGAL (General Directorate of Local Authorities) issued an "Early Alert of Deviations", because the Municipality of Monchique "signaled a rate of execution of the revenue forecast in the budget of less than 85%, recorded in 2017 and 2018, that is, in two consecutive years». A situation that was repeated in 2019. According to the PS, this execution was around 48%, "with a very low level of capital expenditure (18,5%), reflecting a weak investment in the municipality".
For his part, Rui André explains that this low execution of the budget is due to the fact that «we have made an inflated budget in order to be able to include all the projects. We are in the final stage of implementing the European funds and we have to put all projects on budget. We cannot afford to leave out any, otherwise we will not be able to execute them. Some, which were included in 2019, are just getting started».
According to the mayor, “this was explained to the PS bench. We are currently implementing the Regional PO and PO Seur. We would have to say that the works at the School would be left out or that the Air Resources Center would be left out. Even knowing that it would be difficult for these works to start in 2019, we had to have them in the budget, with the total value of the work, to move forward with the projects. Obviously the execution is lower due to this factor».
The PS says that it voted against the document also due to the «continued presentation of negative Net Results, and, in the 2019 financial year, the value is again negative, and expressive», with about 1,4 million euros.
For the PS, the "negative net results presented are particularly detrimental in 2019, taking into account that there is even an increase in transfers to the Municipality", from approximately 7,46 million euros to 8,37 million euros.
According to the socialists, with the accumulation of the previous three years, the results carried over "will be approximately negative 6 million euros in 2020".
At this point, justifies Rui André, «since we do not have the accounting fully organized, when we have small works of direct adjustment, we do not enter them as an investment and appear as an expense, despite the fact that we do the worksheet. We are talking about simple repairs to a road or pipeline. Our priority is to support the population and we are not going to change that to settle the score and have the right results, in terms of income and expenditure”.
The mayor retaliates by saying that “we could do as the PS used to do when it was in front of the Chamber, which hammered the numbers, to make it more successful with the expenses and the income. We have never done this or are going to do it. The numbers that are there are real and, when we are not sure how to enter the value, we enter it as an expense and not as an investment».
Still in response to the socialists, Rui André goes further and says that “there is another question that could help a lot: if the PS is very concerned about the balance and the income, it could ask its former councilor António Mira, who was convicted of have “stolen” from the Chamber more than half a million euros, that they return this amount as decided by the court. If the PS helps us to recover this money, our accounts will be more or less balanced», he concluded.
Edited at 11:50 am, with the correction of the voting results in the Municipal Assembly.
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