There are companies that are experiencing “serious cash problems” because they have been waiting for a year and a half for the support promised by the State, including cases of companies that the Government encouraged to produce items to combat the pandemic and, now, they are not even managing to obtain a response to attempts to contact central administration.
The cases are denounced by the Portuguese Business Association (AEP), quoted by the Jornal de Notícias this Friday. One case is that of the Love in a Box company, which produces houses for children – when the pandemic began, it adjusted production, made the investments, and the promised support has not arrived for 18 months. The president, Susana Silva, says she is living a “Kafkaesque nightmare” after having mortgaged two houses and having “thrown everything I had” into the company – “if they don’t pay me quickly, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said. the businesswoman to JN.
It is far from being a unique case, says Luís Miguel Ribeiro, from the AEP. “It is not uncommon to have delays of a year and a half in the payment of support,” says the official, warning that if things do not change, the execution of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) will not be successful. “The mobilizing agendas of the PRR are still not approved, almost a year later. We will continue to repeat the mistakes and we run the risk of losing thousands of European funds”, warns Luís Miguel Ribeiro.
And why this lack of response? “The State wants to perform miracles when it lacks qualified personnel” in the Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation (IAPMEI), in the National Innovation Agency (ANI) and in the Investment and Foreign Trade Agency of Portugal (AICEP), he says. Francisco Martins, head of Reward, a consulting firm specializing in applications for community programs.
Source: Observadora
