The Court of Auditors is clear: from 2015 to 2017, the municipal company Ambifaro committed «irregularities», sometimes skipping stages in the process of contracting goods and services, sometimes paying contracts even before publication on the Base portal. The matters could «come to consubstantiate financial illicit acts» and have, among those targeted, Sandra Ramos and Bruno Lage, former presidents of two Boards of Directors, and Paulo Santos, vice-president of the Chamber of Faro.
Over 37 pages, the Clearance of Financial Responsibilities Report, dated September 29 of last year and which the Sul Informação consulted, analyzes Ambi's managementfaro for three years – from 2015 to 2017.
The report is based on an anonymous complaint, also following an external audit requested by the PS, in 2018, at the Municipal Assembly of Faro.
In the same period (2015 to 2017), when Ambifaro showed an accumulated loss of around 2,1 million euros, 15 services were provided without complying with the pre-contractual procedure, required by public procurement rules.
These services are of the most diverse nature: supply of electricity, conservation of elevators and even support for Festival F: what is certain is that none of them complied with this rule.
Over the same three years, there were also dozens of contracts executed and paid for, before publication on the Base Portal – which the law also requires.
There are examples such as “Lease of assembly and disassembly of tents for fairs”, supplies of catering for festivals and acquisitions of shows, such as a concert by José Cid, in 2017.
According to the report by the Court of Auditors, currently, all these contracts are already in the Base, but that only happened... «after payment and also after the audit».
During most of this period, more specifically until October 31, 2017, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ambifaro was Bruno Lage, currently president of the Union of Parishes of Faro (PSD).
The CA was also composed of José António Cavaco, at the time councilor of the Chamber, and Paulo Santos, vice-president of the Chamber of Faro (PSD) and who is also one of the faces of this controversy.
The Court of Auditors says that the three are “financial responsible” because “they authorized the expenditure and signed the payments without such norms having been observed”.
In his allegations, Bruno Lage justifies himself, saying that «the members of the Board of Directors were immediately concerned with correcting the breaches that were due to a deficient knowledge of the rules of public procurement, and hiring legal training in this field».
The former chairman of the Board of Directors also says that the BoD trusted «in the distribution of skills among employees» and authorized payments «based on that trust».
The document also details the situation of Sandra Ramos, president of the Board of Ambifaro from November 2, 2017, a post she held until July 9, 2019, the date on which she was dismissed by the mayor due to alleged irregularities.
This report concerns a payment made by Ambifaro, on behalf of Sandra Ramos, in the amount of around 5 thousand euros to Caixa-Geral de Aposentação.
The former leader of the municipal company does not deny that this happened, while she was still an employee, and guarantees that she «is available to settle the amount», something that has already been demanded by the current presidency of Ambifaro.
Regarding Sophie Matias and Carlos Baía, both councilors who sat on the Board of Directors, the TC says that «they also committed the same type of infractions [in relation to public procurement], albeit in a smaller number».
And, adds the Court of Auditors, when «they became aware of the infractions, they adopted procedures and took steps to ensure that they did not happen again in the future».
O Sul Informação tried to contact Sandra Ramos to find out if the approximately 5 thousand euros had already been paid to Ambifaro, but received no response to phone calls and messages, which also happened to Bruno Lage.
The only reaction so far has come from the PSD/Faro, after the PS made this case public.
The social democrats justify what happened with the difficulties in «implementing the Public Procurement Code», which is in line with Bruno Lage's argument.
«Although distant, the aforementioned period was one of transition for many public entities. Now, the Court of Auditors points out that this transition, of great bureaucratic demand, will not have been fully accepted by Ambifaro», it reads.
This was felt, highlights the Faro PSD, «in a very considerable number of municipalities and public companies throughout the country, which were and are in arms with the CCP, seeking to find the best interpretation of its legal provisions».
Financial responsibility, in the words of the PSD/Faro, «was promptly taken up by the heads of Organs administrative bodies at the time, in a gesture of great nobility, detachment and courage in the defense of the public cause, at the same time that they tried to save the company, catapulting it to the levels of excellence that today translate the exercise of its mission, crowned with the achievement of the demanding ISO 9001 quality standard, recently revalidated».
But, in its communiqué, the PS points to the PSD that it accuses of «practices and vices exercised», revealing of «a modus operandi harmful to public management, uncontrolled and wasteful, which was accentuated in 2017, the year of the municipal elections».
«The electoral campaign, at the time marked by a speech of good accounts, now proves to be the opposite and revealing that the Farenses were deceived», they accuse.
For the Socialist Party of Faro, these results «may just be the “tip of the iceberg”» given that the Audit focuses exclusively on the time period between 2015 and 2017, and only on the holding of three events: Alameda BeerFest, Festival F and Feira de Santa Iria.
The PSD, on the other hand, does not let itself be and goes even further behind.
«Everything has a history and, if these bureaucratic procedures are now completely resolved, as well as the implementation of procedures that are totally adequate to the legislative reality of our days by the company, it has never let it get distracted with the essential: filling out the gigantic financial hole that represented the historic decision to build the Municipal Market sustaining in Factoring as a Financial Tool for Managing Seasonal Fluctuations in Trucking and/or short-term credit in a loan of around 12,5 million euros that they [PS] were never able to pay», argues the PSD.
The social democrats also say that "they are paying" the damage of the "dark years between 2005 and 2009" that dictated "the ruin of the Municipality and the birth of the Municipal Market in circumstances that History will judge".
Returning to the report… the Court of Auditors concludes that the «violation of the norms and principles of the Public Procurement Code may constitute a financial infraction».
The document was sent to the Public Prosecutor's Office, which, in an opinion, expressed "agreement with the conclusions", reserving, for later, "a more in-depth analysis".
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