Debts || As the cash-strapped borough council desperately tries to maintain services, a new setback threatens to bring an end to the town’s ‘Vai e Vem’ city bus link.
According to a statement by the borough council, “the continuity of the service is at risk”.
While behind the scenes negotiations play out, the council has declared nonetheless that it is “working to develop all the efforts necessary” to save the service.
The problem stems from a recent veto by the Tribunal de Contas over the contract that the council has with the ‘Vai e Vem’ management company Portimão Urbis.
Portimão Urbis’ financial and administrative problems are already well-documented – with a number of former directors facing corruption charges – but the veto also comes as a result of Portimão council’s almost total lack of funds.
In other words, explained a spokesman, it’s a poker game – with the council simply hoping it can pull out an ace.
“We’re hoping for funds under the Fundo de Apoio Municipal (FAM) very soon,” the council spokesman told the Resident. “As soon as we get FAM money, we will have the necessary funds to assure the contract we have with Portimão Urbis.” He added that he had no idea when the funds would come through, though it would be “in the short term”.
“A matter of months,” he suggested.
Could the council wait ‘months’ and run the bus service properly in the meantime, we asked?
“That is what we are trying to do,” replied the spokesman, who asked not to be named. “It is very, very difficult.”
This is the adjective used constantly by council chiefs who inherited the borough in the last elections with a debt of €166 million – the highest council debt in the country.
For now the council has done the only thing it can under the circumstances. It is appealing the decision of the Tribunal de Contas, and waiting for that appeal to be adjudicated on. With any luck, the decision will come after the arrival of long-awaited FAM funding.
And, in the meantime, the ‘Vai e Vem’ bus service – crucial to many locals for getting around town – will soldier on.
By NATASHA DONN
[email protected]garveresident.com
