Bad weather: there were “deliberate attempts to deceive” the Leiria Chamber

And the minister talks about abuses. Of the 7,587 applications presented by residents of Leiria, 349 were rejected.

Almost 350 applications for support reconstruction of casas in the municipality of Leiria due to the bad weather were rejected, said councilor Ricardo Santos, who warned of changes to the CCDR Centro application submission platform.

Of the 7,587 applications presented by residents of Leiria since February 5th, when the Center’s Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR) platform became available, and until last Sunday, 349 were rejected.

“For example, you can’t get a building book urban, it is not possible to justify that the IBAN that was sent corresponds to that holder, the request for indemnity in what are eligible expenses, such as household appliances or outbuildings that are not attached to the main house”, he explained to the Lusa Ricardo Santos agency, noting that these are “some of the reasons” which lead to the rejection of applications.

Financial support to repair the damage to homes caused by the Kristin depression, which seriously affected the municipality of Leiria almost two months ago, is granted within a maximum period of three business days expenses of up to five thousand euros (with photographs), which do not require inspection, and up to 15 working days for the rest, up to 10 thousand euros.

The mayor responsible for urban operations admitted, on the other hand, that there was “some evidence that there was a deliberate attempt to deceive the Chamber” with the elements presentedadding that the situation surprises him given that this is a “mechanism to help people” with public money.

Also on Wednesday, and in the same vein, the Minister of Territorial Cohesion stated that “the number of rejected support requests for the reconstruction of houses in the center of the country is “quite relevant”, highlighting that there were “some abuses”.

“What I can say is that the number of rejected cases is quite relevant and, therefore, a merit of the city halls that are doing their job. Some of the requests constitute abuses. Of the 26 thousand requests there will not be 26 thousand payments“, said Manuel Castro Almeida, in a hearing in Parliament.

In Leiria, Ricardo Santos highlighted that 42% of applications are returned by CCDR Center to the municipality.

“Since this whole process began, there have been constant changes of what are the documents that are mandatory or the information that is necessary to add to the respective application and that, day after day, there is new conditions”, declared the councilor, exemplifying that, “this weekend, the CCDR introduced another set of amendments” and, again, “the municipalities were not even heard”.

The mayor clarified that there was applications in a position to be “approved by CCDR which, as a result of these changes made over the weekend”, were returned, to respond to “new information that the CCDR considers necessary to [as] validate”.

Ricardo Santos specified that a change has to do with “the indication that the Conservatory certificate corresponds to the urban property booklet that was inserted in the application”, when the “resolution of the Council of Ministers said that either the Conservatory certificate or the urban building booklet could be presented”.

According to the councilor, the CCDR “has been introducing a set of amendments” that cause a “huge inconvenience” to the municipalitybut, “mainly to citizens”, who are “expecting to receive the value of the damages as quickly as possible”, but the process ends up taking some more time.

Ricardo Santos added that of the 7,587 applications relating to the municipality, “around 1,400 have not yet been verified” by municipal services. The rest, even if preliminary, have already had an analysis.

According to data from the Municipality of Leiria, 81 applications have already been paid by CCDR, in a value of “less than 200 thousand euros”, and almost half a thousand are awaiting payment from that entity.

“What we have seen, in the last few days, are applications that had already been submitted and which, in the meantime, left the platform so that people can update”, he noted, recognizing that the entry of new processes is decreasing when compared to previous weeks.

Requests submitted by residents of Leiria on the platform exceed 47 million euroswith the councilor noting that it was the “requested amount”, but that the valor to pay “no final will clearly be inferior”.