The City Council of Ponta Delgada revealed this Thursday that the procedures for the preparation of the fire project for the requalification of the Municipal Market have already begun, noting that only now its non-existence justified the suspension of the works.
In a statement, the municipality headed by the Social Democrat Pedro Nascimento Cabral affirms that the Chamber “was notified on January 28” by the Regional Civil Protection and Fire Service of the Azores (SRPCBA) of the unfavorable opinion on the “alleged security project fire protection”. of the work of Mercado da Graça”.
From the first moment, this executive initiated all the procedures inherent to the elaboration of the correct fire safety project and the necessary expansion of the architectural project of the Mercado da Graça”, he adds.
According to the municipality, the process of preparing this project “is still being developed in the services” of the municipality, in order to “comply with all the respective legal requirements for public procurement.”
The Chamber clarifies that it did not order the suspension of the work on January 28, when the SRPCBA was notified, “because the work fronts were not incompatible with the course of the contract, which made its development possible, a fact that was no longer verified at the end of July 2022.”
According to the municipality, the notification of the SRPCBA was requested by the Chamber of Ponta Delgada on January 14since the “execution process contained information that the alleged fire-extinguishing project did not meet a set of legal requirements.”
Even so, the municipality continues, this “did not prevent the previous municipal executive from approving the contract execution process on December 14, 2020.”
Or, he adds, to “sign the work consignment document with the contractor on September 23, 2021, three days before the municipal elections” of 2021.
For the municipal executive of the PSD, “there are no doubts” that the reclassification of the market began “without due validation” of the alleged fire safety project.”
The alleged fire safety project, included in the process of executing the contract, has no legal validity and, as such, is non-existent”, criticizes the municipality.
The Ponta Delgada City Council announced this Friday that it had suspended the renovation works on the Mercado da Graça roof “for security reasons”, due to the lack of a fire-extinguishing project, and that it was going to open an investigation process.
In a statement, the largest municipality on the island of São Miguel recalled that the project was “authored and initiated” by the previous executive (also from the PSD).
The decision “was taken after notification of the opinion of the Regional Civil Protection and Fire Service of the Azores, which informed, during the execution phase of the contract – authorized and initiated by the previous municipal executive – of the absence of the security project against fires ”, justified the municipality.
Since October 2020, the producers of vegetables, fruits and craft shops have their points of sale in the car park, located on floor -1, while the fishmongers, meat shops and commercial premises continue to operate on floor 0 of the market, he recalled. the camera.
Before the municipal elections of September 2021, the Chamber of Ponta Delgada was led by the Social Democrat Maria José Duarte, third president of the municipality in the previous term and current president of the Municipal Assembly.
In June 2020, the then vice president assumed the presidency of the chamber after Humberto Melo resigned for health reasons.
Humberto Melo had succeeded José Manuel Bolieiro in March 2020, who left the municipality to dedicate himself exclusively to the leadership of the PSD/Azores, having subsequently assumed the presidency of the Government of the Azores.
The PSD has directed the Chamber of Ponta Delgada, the largest in the Azores, for 29 years.
Source: Observadora
