The Confiança Coalition made it known today that it submitted a complaint this Wednesday to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) about the “misuse of EU funds in Funchal”, in particular “with the destruction of the cycle path” in progress.
“This complaint was presented to the authorities that manage EU funds at European level, to the General Directorate for Regional and Urban Policies at European level and also to the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which manages EU funds in Portugal”, informed Miguel Silva Gouveia, in statements on the sidelines of the city council meeting that took place this morning.
According to the opposition councilor, the European Union has already asked the regional management body for explanations on the application of community funds in Madeira.
“We have had many people who have approached us wanting to subscribe to this complaint that Confiança made, since they feel outraged by the destruction that is being made of a work that aims, in the last case, to improve the lives of all those who live , work and visit Funchal”, he asserted.
In response, Pedro Calado, mayor, informed that he became aware of this complaint through a request made to the municipal services by the PS parliamentary group of the Municipal Assembly, deploring the “posture of PS-Madeira and the Confiança Coalition, which instead of bringing good solutions to the city, will be entertained with legal problems.
“They still haven’t realized that they lost the elections. After eight months, they still have this feeling of nothing to add and nothing positive to bring to people, just this attempt at ‘little revenge’. They did not realize that one of the key points in the loss of the elections was, in fact, the Ribeiro Seco bridge and the bicycle path. Nobody liked that project”, said the mayor, who recalled that one of the first promises made by ‘Funchal Semper à Frente’ was to remove the bike path, considering that “it’s not worth feeding a problem, when we know that people are not satisfied ”.
As recalled by Pedro Calado, the reformulation of the contract in question represented an additional investment of 150 thousand euros, which were poured into the alteration of the project in the Forum area and the improvement of other aspects.
“From the Ribeiro Seco bridge to a hotel, before Travessa do Valente, there was a space on the bike path that was not used by anyone and was even an attack on security. That’s the explanation we’re going to give to the rightful person. They are the ones who are having fun with judicial processes and we are doing the works to improve the quality of life of the people”, concluded the mayor.