Too many bureaucrats

Dear Editor,
I was intrigued to see in last week’s Algarve Resident that the EU is going to give Portugal €26 billion to” boost business growth and job creation”.
The same article also points out that Portugal has had €9 million per day since it joined the EU in 1986!
Further in the paper is an article describing how the ASAE (Food Police) shut down a cheese factory destroying 7,000 goats’ cheese and no doubt putting people out of work as the factory did not have all the necessary paperwork. Would it not have made sense to give a warning coupled with a time limit rather than cause this disruption to hard working people?
It seems to me that this country has far too many bureaucrats whose non productive work object is to stop anyone – especially ‘small people’ – from earning a living. This is typified by the fact that the government is hiring 1,000 extra tax inspectors (at what cost?) to ensure that every transaction is accompanied by an official fatura. How many cups of coffee does that represent?
What has happened to the privatisation of TAP which was part of the agreed “bailout plan” with the EU? A buyer was found but the government pulled out at the last minute no doubt influenced by the staff, many of whom would have lost their jobs.
Meanwhile the loss-making airline goes from strike to strike. It is significant that BA wanted to purchase TAP some years ago but they went on strike as jobs would have been lost whilst Lufthansa later gave up negotiations when they realised that they were never going to be able to have a profitable airline.
Maybe UKIP have a fair point when they comment that the €2.7 billion which will be the UK’s contribution to Portugal “is like pouring water down a drain. It is a basket case.”
Norman Thompson
Albufeira