Jornal de Leiria – Municipalities in the region file yet another court action against Valorlis

The legal dispute that pits the five municipalities of the Intermunicipal Community of the Leiria Region (CIMRL) and Ourém against the company that has the concession for waste recovery and treatment continues.

After several precautionary measures to stop the increase in tariffs, the local authorities have now taken legal action to challenge the distribution of dividends and the redemption of the company’s supplies, alleging that these measures will lead to its “decapitalization” by the majority private shareholder. , EGF – Empresa Geral do Fomento.

In a statement, CIMRL revealed that the municipalities of this intermunicipal community (Batalha, Leiria, Marinha Grande, Pombal and Porto de Mós), together with Ourém, presented a legal action in the Commercial Court of the Leiria Court seeking the nullity of the deliberations taken by the Valorlis, where local authorities have a minority position (49%)

The press release states that, in the last general meeting of shareholders, held on March 26, “the representatives of the majority shareholder EGF (Mota-Engil group), with all municipalities voting against, decided to promote the distribution of profits in the amount of 400 thousand euros, plus the redemption of 1.3 million euros in supply”.

In total, there is “a value that amounts to 1.7 million euros subtracted from the company that manages the concession granted by the State for the selective collection, sorting, treatment and recovery of solid waste in those municipalities in the Leiria region and in Ourém”, they claim the municipalities.

“It is an attempt to decapitalize the company to force an increase in tariffs”, criticized Jorge Vala, mayor of Porto de Mós and member of Valorlis, during the Municipal Assembly session held this Friday, where a motion was approved to contest the tariff increase.

According to the CIMRL statement, the mayors understand that the redemption of supplies and the distribution of dividends “seriously harms the company’s investment plan, whose execution rate in 2023 was below 50 percent of the value approved by the Regulatory Entity of Water and Waste Services (ERSAR)”.

On the other hand, “this decision results in greater pressure on the tariff that is charged to municipalities and reflected in consumers’ bills”, maintained CIMRL.

CIMRL also made it known that “tariffs imposed on municipalities grew by 192.5% in the period from 2019 to 2023, going from 26.38 euros to 50.79 euros per ton, demanding the administration of the company controlled by EGF new tariff increases for the year 2024 and beyond, setting as an objective the alleged financial balance of the company and the need to project new investments to adjust to environmental goals”.