The previous president of APPACDM of Braga told Lusa today that he will hold the current president criminally responsible, who accused him of having damaged the institution by “between two and three million euros”.
The current president of the Portuguese Association of Parents and Friends of Mentally Disabled Citizens (APPACDM) of Braga, Bruno Silva, told Lusa on Thursday that the previous management, led by Bruno Ramos, may have harmed the institution in “between two three million euros”, through harmful management and illicit appropriation of public money.
Bruno Ramos recalled today that he was president of APPACDM de Braga between November 11, 2022 and January 8 of this year, highlighting that during this period Bruno Silva was president of the institution’s Supervisory Board.
“In other words, he was the one who supervised the institution’s accounts and documents. In July 2023, the 2022 accounts were approved and a favorable opinion was issued by the fiscal council chaired by Bruno Silva, with access to all documents. On November 25, 2023, a few months ago, the action plan and budget for the year 2024 were presented, with a positive balance of 54 thousand euros and, once again, we had a favorable opinion from the supervisory board. In other words, the person who now says that there is a deviation of 2 to 3 million euros has always issued favorable opinions”, highlighted Bruno Ramos.
And he stressed: “If, eventually, there was any harmful management, that person is with me in the alleged harmful management. Other people may talk about the accounts, but the person who was president of the fiscal council until the day he took office at the end of February, was the president of the fiscal council, saw all the documents and said everything was fine”.
According to Bruno Ramos, “the accountant himself gave a favorable opinion, the institution is subject to an official auditor, who also gave a favorable opinion”.
“There is talk in a completely false, lying and blatant way about embezzlement of 2 to 3 million euros, when what is at stake is the incompetence of not knowing how to solve problems. The annual budget of APPACDM in Braga was 3.4 million euros, if I had made a diversion of three million euros, I would not have paid anyone during the year I was there,” he stated.
The institution, according to this person in charge, has “a liability inherited from a long time ago, a liability of one million or so euros and, therefore, there is a value of contributions here that had to be negotiated with social security, which has been going on for three months since I left, and they have done absolutely nothing.”
“How can I be held responsible, if during the period in which I was exercising management functions, which was only one year, we paid salary credits, which had already been coming since 2011, to workers and debts to suppliers, in the value of more than 300 thousand euros?”, he asked.
Bruno Ramos said that he will sue whoever made such accusations, that is, the current president of the board, and that he will ask for compensation in the amount of the amounts he allegedly embezzled.
“He will be held responsible, because this is true defamation, pure and simple. I’m here, available for justice, I didn’t run away, everyone knows where I am. Until today I have not been contacted for anything, I will wait calmly, if necessary”, he stated.
On Thursday, current president Bruno Silva told Lusa that APPACDM in Braga is “without money to pay March salaries, because its accounts were seized by Social Security”.
He also said that, in addition to the non-processing of 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.
“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.
