EUR 52 million in savings, about 3.5 per year over 14 years. The Chamber of Braga approved, today, in an extraordinary meeting, with the votes in favor of the majority PSD / CDS and PS and the abstention of CDU, the dissolution process, followed by internalization. from SGEB, the public-private company that manages synthetic lawns in parishes and other sports and parish joints. Altogether, 44 structures.
Ricardo Rio pointed out that the proposal was only possible because Caixa Geral de Depósitos agreed to lend 40 million euros to the City Council to meet the bank commitments resulting from the dissolution of SGEB-Sociedade Gestora de Equipamentos de Braga, a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) ) created in 2009 by the former socialist management.
The company’s dissolution proposal will be presented at the next meeting of the Municipal Assembly. Then, it will go to the Court of Auditors that will have the final verdict.
Rio stressed that the loan will be made for 20 years, with a low interest rate (“spread” of 1.75 percent), which will allow, in that period, a saving of 52 million euros. Currently, the Chamber has been paying 6.5 million a year to SGEB.
The mayor stressed that after approval by the Court of Auditors, an Arbitral Tribunal will be set up to decide the amount of compensation to be paid to the two private partners, the ABB (Alexandre Barbosa Borges) construction companies – managed by Gaspar Borges – and Europa- Arlindo, by Domingos Correia.
At the time, Artur Feio, from the PS considered the decision “an act of good management”, stressing that the socialists would do the same if they were power.
Communist Carlos Almeida, on the other hand, expressed his agreement with the end of the PPP, saying that the CDU was always against it, but justified the abstention by the fact that it is not known exactly what the final savings are, since ABB has yet to negotiate with the private sector. and the Arlindo group.
In this regard, both Ricardo Rio and Rui Morais, chief executive officer of SGEB on behalf of the Chamber, said that the calculation of the amount of compensation to private individuals is around 1.6 million. But the two firms, which own 51 percent of the capital, still have the right to recover the 10 million they put into SGEB as supplies (8 million to ABB and 2 to Arlindo) and which are receiving an annual interest of 7 , 8 percent.
The two private companies have already announced that they will appeal to the Arbitral Tribunal asking for the payment of loss of profits, derived, essentially from the fact that Ricardo Rio ‘cut’ in 2013 the investments in progress, since the works of 30 million of the 65 provided for in the contract were missing . Rio no longer took on works due to the “ruinous” conditions in which they had been negotiated by the former executive of the socialist Mesquita Machado.
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