APPACDM in Braga closes its doors. Has garnished accounts and does not pay salaries

The Portuguese Association of Parents and Friends of Mentally Disabled Citizens (APPACDM) in Braga is out of money to pay March salaries, because its accounts were seized by Social Security, the institution’s president said today.

Speaking to Lusa, Bruno Silva said that, in addition to not processing salaries, APPACDM will also close, for an indefinite period, its six activity and training centers for inclusion (CACI), three of which are in Braga and the others in Vila Nova de Famalicão, Esposende and Vila Verde.

“We had a verbal agreement to come up with a plan to pay our Social Security debts, but we were surprised by the seizures, which left us with no money for anything,” he said.

According to Bruno Silva, who has led APPACDM in Braga since the end of last February, the issue is debts to Social Security that already amount to 531 thousand euros and which result from “successive failures” by the previous management.

“Yesterday [quarta-feira]we were going to process the salaries and we came across the garnishments, totaling 303 thousand euros, which prevented us from accessing the accounts”, he said.

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.

Previous president says accusations are “caricatured”

Speaking to O MINHO, the previous president of the institution refutes the criticism, classifying the accusation of “harmful management” as “caricatured”, since the author of the accusation was president of the Supervisory Board of the same management and signed all accounts and reports .

Regarding the alleged embezzlement of money, Bruno Ramos says that it is another “ridiculous accusation”, maintaining that the institution’s annual budget is around 3 million euros, and that if there were a diversion of that order, there would not be a single cent to pay. whatever it is all year round.

Bruno Ramos, who served as president of APPACDM of Braga between November 10, 2022 and January 8, 2024, states that any public consultation allows the accounts approved by the Fiscal Council and Bruno Silva to be seen, remembering that the budget for 2024 was approved and this scenario of not having money to pay employees or even having to close was not envisaged.

“This is a tragedy, there are around 190 users, most of the parents are elderly and are unable to receive these people at home, closing the CACI could never have been the choice”, considered the previous president, highlighting that “what What was foreseen in the approval of the report for this year was the negotiation of the debt with Social Security, but I don’t know what happened, they haven’t done anything since the beginning of the year and now they accuse me of mismanagement and embezzling money”.

News updated at 9:53 pm with statements by Bruno Ramos, previous president of APPACDM de Braga.