The secretary-general of Juntos Pelo Povo (JPP) said on Friday that there are “too many cases accumulated by the Madeira Promotion Association, and that the association should be monitored constantly.
Élvio Sousa addressed the controversy surrounding the recent refusal of the Court of Auditors (TdC) to a tender launched by the Madeira Promotion Association (APM) under the tutelage of Eduardo Jesus, the Regional Secretary for Tourism, Environment and Culture.
This is the TdC’s “lead” to a contract between APM and an agency entitled “Nova Expressão,” to promote Madeira on various platforms. The contract was, however, annulled because the TdC understood that the public tender worth 170 thousand euros could “hide” a deal worth over 11 million euros.
The leader of the largest opposition party recalls that the TdC has been referring to the “weak reliability” of the APM’s internal control system, a situation that, he adds, puts the JPP in a position of “constant vigilance,” given that the accounts show significant failures, including: support granted to entities without documentation proving the regularized tax and contributory situation, weak performance of the Evaluation and Monitoring Commission, lack of mechanism to recover amounts due; failure to report 8.5 million euros allocated; allocation of about 16.1 million euros for events without prior regulation (objectives, selection criteria, amounts) and contracts of more than 2.2 million euros concluded without international public tenders and without prior submission to the TdC.
“Furthermore, the Court of Auditors’ actions have shown that the current model is unstable and should now be the centre of an investigation to ensure that all protocols now and in the future are met.
Élvio Sousa says that this case needs “more and better clarification, and that his party will closely follow the outcome.
“The case revealed by the TdC involving the company Nova Expressão and signed by Judge Paulo Pereira Gouveia may constitute a violation of the rules of transparency and pre-contractual legal procedures and obstruction of competition, leading the judge to question the option for the limited tender by prior qualification instead of an open and more transparent public tender.”Élvio Sousa stresses. “The JPP will bring together the businessmen of the sector and will study the possibility of scrutinizing the actions of this Association, chaired by Eduardo Jesus.”
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
