PSD Foundation received 1.1 million Euros of state funding

Jardim lied about state funding granted to the PSD Madeira Foundation. In 2011, when the national government anounced it was launching an inquest into foundations recieving state founding, Jardim stated that the foundation of which he is president had never received a bean.

At the end of 2009, the Madeira Social Democrat Foundation applied for 1.6 million Euro in rural develpment funding, related to the countryside estate where his party holds its annual political rally. The funding was duly approved and paid up: 518,530 Euros in 2010; 81,779 Euros in 2011; 268,460 Euros in 2012; 235,818 Euros in 2013.

It would be interesting to find out just how the funding has been applied.

PSD Foundation investigation blocked

The Public Prosecutor's investigation into the Madeira PSD Foundation is stopped due to Jardim's parliamentary immunity. Jardim is the Foundation's chairperson. The Regional Parliament also refused to allow Miguel Mendonça and Jaime Ramos, both administrators of the Foundation, to testify.

The Foundation's objectives are charitable, but in reality its activity is party-political. The Foundation owns dozens of buildings which it rents out to the Party. In other words, they are not used for the charitable purposes for which the foundation was set up, but benefit from the tax exemptions associated to its charitable status.

The investigation was launched in 2008 and has been stopped for the last two years.

source: Publico

Jardim (and his cronies) can and do get away with anything due to the gross misuse of Parliamentary immunity to protect the systematic violations of Portuguese law. Criminal prosecution cannot touch these boys, which is one of the reasons they are in power.

Who Funds the PSD Madeira Foundation?

The Portuguese Government released a report evaluating foundations in Portugal which includes the Madeira Social Democrat Foundation. According to the report, between 2008 and 2010, the Foundation recieved no public money, but also did not benefit anyone.

The Foundation was created in 1992, with an initial heritage of 50.000 escudos, which climbed to the value of twelve million, seven hundred thousand and twelve Euros by 2010.

For some time now, the Foundation has stopped paying the scholarships it awarded to students

The big question is who funded and who funds this millionaire Foundation and why?

Although it purports to be a charitable foundation to help students and those in need, much of its purpose is purely political. The foundation owns over fifty buildings which it rents to the Jardim's Party, to use as local party headquarters. It also owns the large landfill sight in the mountains where the PSD holds its annual summer party.

City Councilor's Property Juridically seized

The house of Filipe Sousa, City Councilor for Sta Cruz Municipality, has been the subject seizure by court order. Filipe Sousa leads the Together for the People Movement, who elected three city councilors for Sta Cruz, nearly wresting power away from Jardim's Party.

The Court order comes in the wake of the Councilors having revoked a municipal decision to go ahead with a ruinous project, which would have delapidated the finances of the already half bankrupt city.

The project involved highly connected PSD businessmen, who acquired a property (Quinta Escuna) from the Jardim's Social Democrat Foundation, and intended to build a center to be leased to the Municipality on terms that were very generous indeed for themselves and would be absolutely ruinous for the Municipality.

Sousa sees the move as a form of vengeance and intimidation on the part of the PSD.

New Law for for Foundations will impact Madeira PSD Foundation

The new law for foundations, passed last week through the Portuguese Parliament will have great impact on the Madeira PSD Foundation, particularly as regards transparency. The local PSD foundation owns circa 56 buildings which it then leases to the Party's local branches. The new law obliges the foundation to divulge its annual account on the net and who are its donors.

For years, the Foundation has been subject of controversy for its total lack of transparency, for the apparent incompatibility of its office-holders (Jardim, Jaime Ramos and his right hand men), for the question mark over its donors and for its dubious charitable status. 

The foundation's charitable action was to hand out scholarships for higher education, but most of its activities were clearly political - even the scholarships, some youths complained, were granted under pressure to join the Social-Democrat Youth Party. The Foundation had recently stopped grant payments due to alleged lack of funding, so what still justifies its 'public utility' status?

Miguel Albuquerque, the Mayor of Funchal resigned from the Foundation last month. 

The law comes too late help us understand the glory years of the foundations when dozens of earth-laden trucks from all the big construction companies went to dump their loads in the foundation's landfill, in the huge forested area they bought in the mountains… Nevertheless, transparency may dictate the end of the Foundation, or at any rate, its current usefulness to Bertie's Party.