Mário Cruz / Lusa
At issue are suspicions raised by a Court of Auditors report on the public financing of the Atalaia Living Care association.
The Court of Auditors (TdC) sent an audit to the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP) that raises suspicions about public financing awarded to the Atalaia Living Care association, an elderly support institution based in Madeira.
According to , the report is several hundred pages long and describes a situation considered “alarming”, marked by “financial irrationality” in the management of public funds, oversight failures and potential conflicts of interest.
Between 2019 and 2021, at Atalaia Living Care received around 21.7 million euros through program contracts signed with the Regional Government of Madeira to ensure continued care in 733 beds. Following the audit, the TdC ordered the imposition of fines on several political and administrative leaders, including the former vice-president of the Regional Government, Pedro Calado, and the former regional secretary of Finance, Rogério Gouveia.
One of the main issues raised by the court concerns the high rents paid by the institution for the use of the facilities of the former Hotel Pestana Atalaia, in Caniço. In 2020, monthly charges reached 183 thousand euros, representing around two million euros annually. The report also highlights that the company that owns the property, Alerta Green, maintains links with the association itself, a circumstance that the court considers worthy of scrutiny.
The audit also criticizes the hiring, in 2024, of an executive general director with a contract until 2032, monthly net salary of 5500 euros and compensation clauses that can represent hundreds of thousands of euros in the event of early termination. The TdC considers the contract unusual for a private social solidarity institution and questions the legality of the remuneration conditions.
The sending of the report to DCIAP was motivated mainly by doubts related to the assignment of an employee of the Madeira Social Security Institute to a foreign company supposedly based in an Arab tax haven. The court considers the assignment “impossible to understand from the point of view of legality”, also pointing out gaps in the payment of salaries during the first months of collaboration.
Furthermore, the report denounces alleged serious oversight failures on the part of the regional administration, classifying its acting as “inert and submissive”. The auditors also report that the health unit operated for years without the appropriate license for the activity carried out, having only authorization for tourist use.
The Attorney General’s Office confirmed that the DCIAP is analyzing the documentation sent by the Court of Auditors. The Regional Government of Madeira claims to have already adopted measures to correct the flaws identified in the audit.
