THE PORTUGUESE Exchequer Audit Department has accused the Administration of Lisbon’s Port (Administração do Porto de Lisboa – APL) of incompetent business dealings with shipping terminal concession holders.
The Audit Department (Tribunal de Contas –TC) says that the APL has failed to collect at least 1.8 million euros in revenues outstanding from 2006.
However, Manuel Frasquilho, the President of the APL, has denied that maladministration rather than spiralling costs have pushed the port authority to the brink of bankruptcy.
Manuel Frasquilho says that he recognises that today the shipping business at the port isn’t the business it used to be, but said that, at the time, when the contracts for the multiuse terminals were drawn up in the 1990s, charges to concessionaires were made at the then current competitive market rates.
Overspending
One company, Naval Rocha, which is based at the former Lisnave Ship Building Docks, was on the point of bankruptcy because of a delay in the delivery of parts needed to maintain a number of frigates.
The TC has also attacked the APL for spending 829,000 euros over three years on company cars and vehicles at a time when the company was seriously in debt.
However, the APL argues that the fleet of cars and vehicles was necessary in order to patrol all of the areas at the Port of Lisbon under its jurisdiction, which also includes extensive areas on the south and north banks of the River Tejo.
The TC Audit also criticised the APL for overspending on staff, representing 39 per cent of its total receipts.
The APL has admitted that spending on staff has been high but that both national and EU laws specify the number of staff legally required, making it impossible, as a result, to reduce costs.
Manuel Frasquilho claims that the system of automatic career progression in operation for staff at port authorities has also contributed towards making it impossible to rationalise salaries and reduce costs.
In addition, the APL claims that it is still shouldering the cost of handing over vast tracts of land for the EXPO 98 for which it has never been compensated by successive governments.
The APL also refused to accept that it was technically bankrupt according to the TC Audit but argues that it has a positive liquid balance of 136 million euros while its bank loans stand at 57 million euros.
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