Portimão council management have handed in an application for funding to the Municipal Support Fund as the bankrupt Algarve municipality struggles with €150 million of debts.
The application is for a cool €100 million so the council can pay off its long suffering suppliers.
According to Filipe Vital, the chief of staff to the president of Portimão Council, "the application was delivered today to the executive committee of the Municipal Support Fund which will evaluate the document."
With a total debt of about €150 million, Portimão tried to get funding from the Local Economy Support Program last year but the application was rejected.
Mayor Isilda Gomes said in May last year that "The setback of not getting the loan application past the Court of Auditors does not undermine the firm purpose of this town hall to honour its commitments to its creditors."
The public is still waiting for the results of the full inquiry into Portimão Urbis, set up to run the council’s markets, transport and cultural activities, which by 2012 had been responsible for 35% of the total municipal debt.
An independent audit found also that at Expo-Arade, a company 49% owned by by Portimão Urbis which built and ran the €13 million Portimão Arena, "the public interest was not properly addressed.”
Portimão council still is undergoing an extraordinary inspection by the General Inspectorate of Finanças while the former Mayor Manuel da Luz, Deputy Mayor Luis Carito and Councillor Jorge Campos have been arrested and accused of financial crimes.
If Isilda Gomes received the €100 million from the Municipal Support Fund this will go a long way in stabilising the council's finances and, if she stops buying fire engines, there is a hope that a degree of normality can be attained in a couple of years' time.
