“The Madeira Liberal Initiative is against investing millions of euros that the Regional Government insists on making, through Sociedade Ponta Oeste, in a golf course in Ponta do Pargo, when government focus should be on investing in health, education or essential infrastructure for Madeirans.”
Gonçalo Camelo, coordinator of IL Madeira, believes that the golf course, designed by Nick Faldo, which will have 140 villas and two hotel units, should be operated by private individuals.
“This is another example of the model in which the government socializes costs and privatizes profits, assuming the risks of a business that should be 100% private,” he says, stressing that IL Madeira considers that if this project were viable, “private investors would come forward on their own, without needing public funds, and the fact that this hasn’t happened demonstrates that it is an investment of dubious profitability, where the burden falls on taxpayers and where profits will benefit only a few.”
The Madeira Liberal Initiative questions “whether the costs and benefits of the project have been properly assessed, whether the effective transfer of costs and risks to future concessionaires is guaranteed. They further understand that these are issues that need to be discussed and clarified to ensure responsible management of public money.
“While a commercial project is being financed, there are hospitals without medicines, degraded schools, roads that need resurfacing, and Civil Protection with insufficient resources,” warns the party.
IL also considers that the Regional Government should ensure that the basic needs of the population are met before “spending millions on an elitist enterprise. Madeira needs governance that respects taxpayers and puts essential services ahead of white elephant projects. Madeirans deserve, in addition to better health care, quality education, and safe infrastructure, before considering themselves superfluous investments. They also deserve more freedom of choice. Enough of spending and political decisions that benefit only a few. It is time to change course and ensure that public money is used to improve everyone’s lives,” he concluded.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
