Portimão Urbis is to be wound up, the council finally has decided and workers have been informed.
Around 50 staff already have been sucked back into the council’s mainstream operations but now it's official as the review of the council’s main trading company which runs, among other businesses, the Arade Exhibition Centre (pictured), had been completed.
The conclusions were easy to arrive at; the Urbis money-go-round had served the previous crooked regime well, being used for illegal, illicit and unaccountable financial actions for years, mainly by former council vice president Luís Carito and Urbis directors.
The council politely reported that there are “various factors which fail to justify the existence of the company as a separate entity from the Council."
What the council failed to point out was that the debt of Portimão Urbis will be assumed by the council, or more correctly, by the ratepayers. In 2012 the company was €12 million in debt, a figure that is unliklely to have reduced.
“From the analysis, it was clear that the risks to the municipality in keeping the company in operation did not overcome the satisfaction of the income received by the operation of Portimao Urbis.”
Mayor Isilda Gomes will set up a board to wind up the company by the end of the year and transfer any remaining assets to the Council.
Today’s press release foolishly mentioned jubilant postings on social media concerning the closure: "This decision was taken in a considered manner and with knowledge that the lives of the employees of the company will be affected and therefore there cannot be ridiculous displays of rejoicing as those already observed on social networks by some of the mayor’s political opponents.”
As the police and the tax authority continue to investigate the regime previous to Isilda Gomes, Portimão Urbis will not be forgotten as its accounts were an all too convenient vehicle for fraudulent activity by its directors and deputy-mayor.
The full story should involve the ludicrous scheme to turn an area next to the racetrack into a massive film studio, the funding of Parkalgar which built the racetrack and then failed to pay suppliers, and much else which saw Portimão well on the way to having the highest council debt in the Algarve, a shining example of incompetence and a lack of supervision by those bodies overseeing council expenditure.
