Closing of APPACDM is “a tragedy”, reacts former president, denying “mismanagement” or “deviations”

Bruno Ramos, previous president of APPACDM de Braga, today appointed by the new management with the possibility of having carried out “harmful management” with “misappropriation” of funds, reacted to the suspicions with incredulity, pointing out the current president’s statements as “caricatures” and “unusual”.

“In all the corporate bodies that I presided over at APPACDM in Braga, between November 2022 and January 2024, Bruno Silva (current president) was the president of the Fiscal Council, and continued to be until the February 2024 elections (when was elected president of the board), so it is unusual for someone who was responsible for approving accounts to say that there was harmful management”, considered the previous president.

“There are many people who can even criticize the previous management, but not the president of the Supervisory Board who signed all the documents of that same management. If there was harmful management, he was with me”, concluded Bruno Ramos.

Remember that the institution announced today that it has no money to pay March salaries, because its accounts were seized by Social Security, closing, “for an indefinite period”, its six activity and training centers for inclusion (CACI) , three of which are in Braga and the others in Famalicão, Esposende and Vila Verde.

Speaking to the Lusa agency, current president Bruno Silva also said that the previous management may have lost between 2 and 3 million euros through “illegal appropriation of public money”.

But Bruno Ramos says that this accusation is “caricatured”, because “for him everything was fine”, referring to the approval of the institution’s reports and accounts which, according to the previous president, were reviewed by an Official Accounting Technician with a independent opinion, precisely in charge of the Supervisory Board chaired by the new president Bruno Silva.

“Any public consultation on the website (of APPACDM) shows the 2022 report and accounts, in which the accounts are approved with a favorable opinion from Bruno Silva and the Fiscal Council, and where it is confirmed that he had access to all documents and, therefore, After checking all the accounts, he issued a favorable opinion, on July 25, 2023”, argues Bruno Ramos.

For the previous president, “the ridiculous thing about all this is that on November 25, 2023 we presented the budget for 2024, and in which once again a favorable opinion from Bruno Silva was issued”.

“I ask what happened? And now why are you saying it was the previous administration? Getting to the point of saying that I embezzled 3 million when the annual budget is that amount, I ask how I would embezzle money that didn’t even exist”, he continued.

Bruno Ramos considers that “no one says that the institution was swimming in money, because old liabilities have been going on for a long time and are difficult to manage, but what was established was the negotiation of debts with Social Security, and I don’t know what What did the new management do because they let it get to the point of seizure and now this tragedy is happening”, he concluded.

To the Lusa agency, the current president explained that “yesterday [quarta-feira]we were going to process the salaries and we came across the garnishments, totaling 303 thousand euros, which prevent us from accessing the accounts”.

The person in charge said that APPACDM in Braga has a total of 167 workers, bringing the monthly salary to 220 thousand euros.

The institution, which also has three residential homes, serves 262 users.

“For now, and at great cost, we are still keeping homes open, because these are users who are completely dependent on our services”, said Bruno Silva.

He admitted, however, that if the issue of accounts is not quickly unblocked, the institution may have to move towards closure, because suppliers, particularly in the food sector, threaten to “turn off the tap”.

For Tuesday, a meeting is scheduled at the Braga District Social Security Center to try to reach an agreement that will allow APPACDM to resume normal operations.

According to Bruno Silva, the previous management may have damaged the institution by “between two and three million euros”, through harmful management and illicit appropriation of public funds.

“It is a huge number of crimes”, he said, pointing out that the case is already being investigated by the Public Ministry.

Speaking to O MINHO, the president of the previous board said he had not been contacted by the authorities because of any complaint.

With Lusa.