Olhão’s €32 million budget was kicked out by an opposition voting in unison, claiming the figures concealed a hidden trick.
Olhão’s council will carry on managing the municipality from month to month until a new budget can be agreed. The council can spend the equivalent to 1/12th of last year’s budget every month in the meantime. This is 22% more than the 2014 budget was set to spend but it is hoped that restraint will be shown.
The 2014 budget had been approved in a council meeting but in the full municipal assembly all opposition members voted against the budget - six members of the PSD, three from the CDU, three from the Left Bloc and the one representative from Novo Rumo.
Councilor Sebastião Coelho already had voiced his opinion that the 2014 Olhão budget hid "a deficit of around €8.5 million."
According to the councilor the income and expenditure figures added up to a net zero, as required by law, but the budget is alleged to conceal a deficit of €8.5 million. The budget for 2014 is €32 million which is a drop 22% over 2013.
The council is €8 million in debt and by setting a budget that does not reduce this figure in effect is carrying over the sum without planning to pay it off in 2014, apart from by 'asset sales' of an indistinct nature.
Mayor António Pina has not yet commented on this embarrassing turn of events and in the meantime it is back to the accountancy drawing board in order to come up with an easy-to-understand budget with no hidden surprises. He is incensed having spend many hours and in meetings agreeing the budget with colleagues only to see it kicked out when it came to the vote in assembly - this is local politics where 'party line' voting can disrupt the smooth running of a local authority. However the Silves mayor has managed to get a budget aproved and she is the only representative of her party on the council, so it can be done.
Fiurther explanations as to councillors’ relationships with suppliers to the council would also be appreciated, if Antonio Pina could spare the time. Also what provision is made for cleaning up the Ria Formosa area from the cocktail of sewage and chemicals that he is aware are being pumped into the water thus affecting 2,500 fishermen dependent on the areas’ cleanliness for their living.
A letter put in with water bills to Olhão residents explained Pina’s open approach to local government so if already there is accounting trickery in the 2014 budget then this is not a good start.
The already shaky relationship between the leading Socialist Party and the opposition was further upset by comments released by news agancy Lusa, who quoted Jorge Tavares, the Olhão council press officer, who accused the parties responsible for the impasse of “childishness,” a view that mayor Antonio Pina said was "informal and personal, not reflecting in any way the position of the executive,” adding that the council had made no official statement and blamed the comments on the “unfortunate attitude" of the news agency.
