THE OPPOSITION Socialist Party has renewed its demand for a full inspection of the accounts of Cascais Câmara. Suspicions that the câmara is “spending to excess” and in an “uncontrollable manner” led the Socialists to file a complaint in court last April.
The renewed calls follow press revelations that the present leadership has spent more than three million euros on computers and IT equipment without informing appropriate channels in the câmara.
Most of the spending was authorised directly by the Câmara President, António Capucho, a prerogative to which he is entitled under the competences delegated to him. But Umberto Pacheco of the Socialist Party has insisted that he and other councillors are entitled to examine the nature of the purchases.
Last week, Socialist councillors demanded a detailed list of all the equipment, hardware and software acquired in the last three years since the present câmara came to power, including the cost and purchase date of each item, the reasons for the purchases and the names of the officials who authorised them.
Capucho denies that anything illegal has taken place: “If any legal formality has not been observed, albeit unintentionally, those people responsible for financial and judicial services have the strict obligation to alert me. This did not occur in this case, because nothing abnormal happened,” he said. Publicly, Capucho describes the Socialist Party’s demand to have an audit of accounts as “a demonstration of hypocrisy and impudence”.
