Government of Madeira defends review of the social mobility subsidy – Politics

The resigning president of the Government of Madeira (PSD/CDS-PP), Miguel Albuquerque, stated this Tuesday that the executive intends to consider reviewing the social mobility allowance, arguing that users should only pay the face value.

“We will establish contacts with the Government [da República] in order to consider, also with the Azores, what is the best solution”, he said, arguing that there should be “a fund on the part of the State that would guarantee all residents who wanted to travel the payment of the face value [da passagem com subsídio].”

Miguel Albuquerque, who was speaking on the sidelines of a visit to the 1st cycle school in Estreito de Câmara de Lobos, municipality of Câmara de Lobos, in the west of Madeira, reacted to the fact that the Judiciary Police (PJ) had arrested him this Tuesday five people and carried out 71 searches in an operation focused on the Autonomous Region of Madeira and the metropolitan area of ​​Lisbon, which aimed to defraud the State through the social mobility subsidy.

The Social Mobility Subsidy came into force in September 2015, when residents in Madeira started paying 86 euros and students 65 euros for round-trip connections to the mainland and 119 to the Azores, an amount that can be increased if it exceeds the maximum refundable ceiling, which is 400 euros.

According to the PJ statement, home and non-home searches took place in Lisbon, Loures and Madeira, especially in the municipalities of Funchal, Santa Cruz and Câmara de Lobos, and constituted a second initiative in Operation Rota do Viajante, whose investigation is in charge of the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP) of Loures.

“The investigation found that the defendants, with the aim of obtaining large illegitimate economic profits, decided to develop a criminal scheme with the aim of obtaining illegitimate profits through the social mobility subsidy, related to hundreds of non-existent trips, totaling undue reimbursements exceeding half a million euros”, reads the note released by the PJ.

The PJ also clarified that the plan for these elements involved “requesting residents” of Madeira, “who were provided with documents necessary to withdraw this subsidy and previously falsified, such as airline tickets, tickets and reservations, invoices and receipts”.

These people were then accompanied by members of the criminal network and presented documentation at CTT stations on the mainland to receive reimbursement from the State.

Also according to the president of the Regional Government, the State should create a scheme similar to that already implemented by the Madeiran executive for university students, through a fund that guarantees only the face payment of the subsidized ticket — 65 euros.

Miguel Albuquerque said, on the other hand, that no Regional Government secretariat was searched this Tuesday as part of the PJ operation.

“Not so far,” he assured.

The Judiciary indicated that the five detainees are between 23 and 55 years old and will be presented to a judge at the Loures criminal investigation court to learn about the coercive measures in this process, in which there is already a defendant in pre-trial detention.

In the note, the PJ also recalled the carrying out of “several police operations” in the last five years to dismantle “criminal networks dedicated to the fraudulent use of the social mobility subsidy” in Madeira and the Azores, which have already harmed the State in more of six million euros.