Élvio Sousa, parliamentary leader of the JPP, complained again today that GESBA refuses to provide the documents requested by the party, namely contracts referring to the transport service in containers and invoices for the sale of bananas.
Faced with this situation, the deputy insists that “GESBA hides from farmers and Madeirans the real price at which it sells bananas”.
Recalling a statement by Miguel Albuquerque, that the banana from Madeira was the best paid in Europe, Élvio Sousa challenges the president of the Regional Government to show the invoices to all Madeirans and farmers.
In a statement, Élvio Sousa accuses GESBA of “keeping the profits from the farmer’s work and paying for bananas at a lower price than 15 years ago”, taking refuge “in an alleged ‘trade secret’, which has thickened business banana parallels”.
“Now, if Miguel Albuquerque claims to defend transparency in other people’s homes, he should go public and reveal the truth to farmers, since GESBA sells bananas, supported with community funds, under a monopoly regime, and moreover, the Regional Government imposed limitations, impossible to overcome, to the associations of banana producers”, he considers.
Élvio Sousa declares that “the JPP will pursue its objective of monitoring this business, whatever the cost, and donating to whoever it hurts, using all fronts to discover the truth, and to bring justice to the more than 2,000 farmers who are exploited, as if they were settlers”.
In conclusion, the parliamentary leader highlights the fact that GESBA does not publish its accounts on its own official website or in any other body of the Regional Government of Madeira, which he considers a contradiction in terms of the company’s claim that it does not hide anything. “The JPP transparency page has been publishing the reports and accounts of that regional public company”, says Élvio Sousa.