Supreme Court Rules Calheta Beach Hotel was illegaly built

The Supreme Administrative Court has ruled that the Calheta Beach Hotel, belonging to Bertie´s pal, Madeira's biggest contstructor, Avelino Farinha, has been built illegaly. The hotel, opened in 2004, may now have to be demolished.

The building was in fact never licensed at all! Calheta Municipality, which had contested the decision, claims that since the City Council did not decide on whether to approve the project within thirty days of the project having been submitted, it was automatically tacitly approved... Wonderful! So who in the City Council could be held accountable for illegalities?

The project also raised questions of the use of Public Maritime Domain, since it built within 50 meters of the sealine and site was only licensed for use as a restaurant for a five year period, which has since ended.

But Avelino continues to be in Bertie's good books. Last week, his company AFA won a government cotract for regularising the stream in Ribeira Brava, for 59 million Euros, while the two rival bidders had put in tenders averaging 40 million.

Jaime Ramos and the Hidden debt investigation

The  Expresso weekly reported that Jaime Ramos is business partner of two of the construction companies who are creditors of the Regional Government in the 1.1 billion of hidden debt.

As is well known, Jaime is chair of the Cimentos Europa, in which he owns a 22,5% stake. AFA, Tamega and Zagope are the other shareholders.

Jaime Ramos and his son, Avelino Faria (AFA) and Tamega are also equal shareholders in Ecoram, a waste-treatment company.

Jaime Ramos and son are 100% shareholders in the tarmac supply company AECP-Asfaltos, Emulsões e Combustíveis.

(Nobody knows who the owner of the AFA shares owned Offshore are)

AFA, Tamega and Zagope are on the list of hidden debt credit which is being investigated by the Central Investigation Department in the operation designated 'Cuba Livre'. The investigation is on whether members of the government hid the debt from the Bank of Portugal and the Institute of Statistics on Purpose, a crime punishable with a one year jail sentence (which will lead nowhere since it is not severe enough to oblige the lifting of their parliamentary immunity! - just like the election violations!).


According to the Court Auditors, some of the debt (in 2009) reported to construction projects completed in 2003, but not billed until 3 or 4 years later. The Government had made a secret deal with the constructors to pay them in installments up until 1914, but never reported the debts.

There seems to be an obvious collusion between Bertie, Ramos and his construction partners in hiding the debt to keep Bertie in power and ensure his program of public construction would continue to drive huge sums into their pockets.


We used to joke about the 'Cement Lobby', but in this case, there is no need for a lobby since they are directly represented in Government. 

Expresso Demistifies Government Debt Denial

The Secretary of Finances had denied this week that the Madeira Debt had reached 8 billion Euros. According to the Expresso, the contested 2 billion disparity relates to the Public-Private enterprises, for the companies exploring the regional roads.

Of the 2 billion total accorded with the concessions, 600 million had been paid up until 2010. Although there is an annual fee for the Government to pay, this is only considered a debt (according to EU Comission criteria) if the Government defaults. According to the Secretary of Finances, the default in December 2011 only amounted to 170 million Euro.

The Via Expresso and Via Litoral partnerships were established in 1999 and 2004 and will oblige the Government to pay them a further 1.3 billion between 2012 and 2029.

In short, the Government has contracted debts of over 8 billion Euros, but only consideres 6 billion to be in debt.

The Via Litoral, set up in 1999, has as its main shareholder AFA, owned by Avelino Farinha Agrela (and unidentified offshore shareholders).

Via Expresso, formed in 2004, has Tamega as a main shareholder. The most important regional construction companies are sharehodlers in both.

(The main companies are also shareholders along with the PSD leader, Jaime Ramos, in Cimentos Europa, the company that supplies most of the cement to the public works in Madeira)

Jaime Ramos, Secretary General of the PSD and PSD Parliamentary leader, is also President of the Construtors Association - ASSICOM; Avelino Farinha Agrela (AFA) is the chariman of the ASSICOM General Assembly.

The Institute of Fianacial Administration, in its September 2011 report, alerted that these contracts were highly profitable for the private entities with no risk involved.

Whale Museum Cost 730% more than initial budget

The museum construction was adjudicated in 2004 to the builders AFA and Arlindo Correia e Filhos, for the sum of 1.6 million Euros. The follow year, the budget had risen to 2.083 million. After several delays, the costs, according to the PIDDAR 2010, were set at 10,083 million. The costs climbed even higher with the inclusion of equipment which should have been covered by the original tender.

The Museum was finally inaugurated just prior to the October 2011 regional elections. Immediately after the elections, the Government passed a resolution to pay compensation to the builder, to the tune of 621.350 Euros. The total cost of the project is now 11.723 million Euro: seven times the initial cost. The EU contributed circa 1 million towards the project. AFA is the company that tops the public works contracts in the region and is also the builder that has been directly contracted to do most of the 20th of February reconstruction works, without public tenders.

Source: Publico

AFA claims repayment of Marítimo debt

The company AFAVIA Engineering and Construction (AFA) has put in a procedure for precautionary seizure of the Marítimo football club sports complex to secure the payment of a debt worth 7,4 Million Euros. The debt dates back to the construction of the second phase of the complex in 2004. Carlos Pereira, President of Marítimo did not deny the existence of the debt, but suggested that the non-fulfillment of several program contracts between the Regional Government and the club may be at the origin of this problem. i.e. The Regional Government has fallen behind in payments to the club, which therefore cannot pay the builders.

President Jardim commented on the situation, saying ‘I am the friend of many people and I don´t like to interfere in confusions between my friends.’

Cement Sales

The sales of cement in Madeira have fallen drastically from a peak of 774.595 tons in 2004 to 251.745 tons in 2010 – more or less the same level as 1991.

2004 was an election year. The Portuguese Government had approved a law of zero tolerance with regard to increasing public debt, but Jardim’s Government in Madeira sidestepped the law by creating a number of state companies which then borrowed approximately €500 million to finance public works, to be inaugurated in the run up to the elections.

Madeira’s cement is supplied by two companies: Cimentos Madeira is part-owned by the Regional Government, Cimentos Europa is owned by a consortium of four of the largest building companies and Jaime Ramos, Jardim’s right-hand man and parliamentary leader.

In 2004, AFA, one of the shareholders of Cimentos Europa was one of the construction companies with the biggest turnovers in the whole of Portugal, based almost exclusively on the public works it carried out in Madeira. AFA SGPS was part-owned by a London-based company called ‘Vasia Investments’ (Vasia means ‘empty’). This company was in turn owned by ‘Corner Consultants, Ltd’, based in the Virgin Islands. The shareholders of the latter company are unknown…