The deputy of the Liberal Initiative (IL) in the parliament of the Azores presented this Tuesday a request to have access to the specifications of the study on the model of maritime freight transport in the Azores.
In the document presented to the Regional Legislative Assembly of the Azores, Nuno Barata also calls for the “identification of the entities invited to carry out this work”recalling that the study announced by the Government (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM) results from a recommendation of the regional parliament approved unanimously in October 2021.
The contract for the study of the maritime transport of goods in the Azores was launched with the base price of 70 thousand euros and an execution period of around eight months, the executive revealed on Monday.
In a statement, the IL deputy recalls that, in the resolution approved in parliament, the Regional Government is recommended “to carry out an economic feasibility study of different models of maritime freight transport, which contemplate transport from the mainland to the Azores and the distribution and transportation of inter-island cargo”.
Practically a year later, the Regional Secretariat for Tourism, Mobility and Infrastructure reveals that “the contract for the study of maritime freight transport in the Azores was launched”, throwing “its conclusions for 2023 and not for the end of 2022”.
According to the deputy, the 2022 deadline had been “guaranteed in April” by the “coalition executive, in a written response.”
Nuno Barata also states that, “in the public note released by Berta Cabral’s secretary, issues such as “identical price for all the islands” and “coordination of cabotage with local operators” are supposedly defined in terms of the specifications, within the framework In terms of the study to be carried out, “public service obligations” are foreseen.
The deputy from IL/Azores highlights that, “in the framework of the legally established definitions in the scope of the Public Procurement Code, a consultation procedure requires the existence of a specification and the making of three invitations to entities supposedly authorized to carry out the study”.
Thus, the parliamentarian wants a “discriminatory justification of the reasons that led the Regional Government to invite the aforementioned companies, to the detriment of others supposedly interested and with technical knowledge to carry out the study.”
Nuno Barata also wants to know “what are the reasons that justify the delay between the publication of the November resolution and the [de 2021] and the start-up of the contracting procedure”.
In a press release released this Monday on the official website, the Regional Secretariat of Tourism, Mobility and Infrastructure says that the study aims to “better serve each one” of the nine islands of the archipelago.
“We intend to work on the sustained creation of a true internal market, which enhances our internal cohesion and the development of the local economy of the nine islands in a harmonized way, and this study is a decisive step in the entire process”, explained the regional secretary Tourism, Mobility and Infrastructure, Berta Cabral, quoted in the statement.
The minister revealed in May that the executive had abandoned the project for a ship to transport passengers, but was going to study the maritime transport of goods.
The tender, whose specifications were being finalized at the time, provided for an “identical price for all the islands” and an articulation of cabotage “with local operators,” said the regional secretary at the May plenary session.
Berta Cabral stressed that the new study for maritime transport “has public service obligations.”
Source: Observadora
