“This audit is a continuation of the political persecution that began when I announced my candidacy for the Setúbal City Council. It solely serves to target and politically persecute me. It is a character assassination attempt by my political opponents to gain electoral advantages,” states the former city councilor and current candidate, adding she is unaware of the audit and its result, which was not provided to her, and she was not even heard in it.
On the other hand, she finds it strange that the audit targets only her and is released 30 days before the municipal elections.
When questioned, the Setúbal City Council, through its press office, indicated that the audit will be sent to the Polícia Judiciária, which had already requested it, and to the General Inspection of Finances.
The audit, accessed by the agency, is dated September 11 and was proposed by PS officials and approved by the CDU, PS, and PSD majority in the Setúbal council, following a news report by Público on August 29, 2024, and an investigation by SIC, broadcast on October 23 of the same year, regarding alleged misuse of the municipal credit cards and improper receipt of travel allowances during the 2017/2021 term.
The analysis covered bank transactions of all municipal credit cards, travel bulletins, payment of travel allowances, as well as toll road statements from January 1, 2017, to October 31, 2021.
Some of these are described in the audit.
The conclusions state that “the conduct of the then Setúbal City Council President, Maria das Dores Meira, between January 1, 2017, and October 31, 2021, was found to be non-compliant with several legal and regulatory standards.”
The audit indicates that the president’s actions were non-compliant with the Official Local Government Accounting Plan (POCAL) due to the absence of an effective internal control system, particularly concerning credit card use, undocumented bank transactions, and insufficient segregation of duties.
The actions also failed to comply with the Public Administration Accounting Standards System (SNC-AP) due to non-compliance with reliability and regularity financial information principles, omission of adequate documentation support in various operations, and the Local Government Legal Framework (RJAL) due to duplicated travel allowances with representation expenses and payments made without proof of direct public interest.
“The facts found, such as the improper accumulation of travel allowances with expenses paid by credit card, use of municipal funds for personal or recreational purposes, and lack of supporting documents for various bank movements, constitute potential violations of the principles of legality, public interest pursuit, economy, efficiency, and effectiveness as enshrined in Article 266 of the Portuguese Constitution and Article 5 of the Administrative Procedure Code,” states the document.
The audit adds that “the undue appropriation of public assets entrusted for performing elected/mandated duties, thus conferring an illegitimate asset advantage, constitutes the crime of embezzlement as defined in Article 375 of the Penal Code.”
Maria das Dores Meira served as the president of the Setúbal City Council from 2006 to 2021, initially replacing Carlos de Sousa (also elected by the CDU), who resigned after losing the political confidence of the PCP, and afterward as the elected president in 2009 (with 38.83% of the votes), having been reelected twice with an absolute majority, in 2013 (41.93%) and 2017 (49.95%).
The Setúbal City Council is currently led by André Martins and consists of five CDU members, four from PS, and two from PSD.
