Portugal Is Still Chasing 400 Million Euros of Portugal 2020 Money Paid Out for Spending That Did Not Qualify
More than a billion euros in undue payments were registered and 70 percent has come back, the cohesion agency says. Most of the rest is with the tax authority, and not a euro of the Serrão case has been recovered.
Portugal is still trying to recover about 400 million euros paid out under Portugal 2020, the European funding framework that ran from 2014 to 2020, for spending that later turned out not to qualify. The figure comes from Cristina Pires, who coordinates the fund management and regularisation unit at the Agency for Development and Cohesion (AD&C), in an interview with ECO published on Monday.
Portugal 2020 had more than 22,000 debts registered, worth more than one billion euros in total. About 70 percent of that has been recovered. The 400 million still outstanding is a mix of European money and the national contribution to the same projects, and some of it is already being repaid in instalments.
How a grant becomes a debt
"European funds are there to finance projects, and in the course of the projects, sometimes, during an administrative check or an audit, it is found that some expenditure was wrongly paid," Cristina Pires explained. The spending may have been judged ineligible, or not properly justified. "And if that amount has been paid, it becomes a debt and the beneficiary has to return it."
The first attempt at recovery happens inside the programme that paid the money: if the same beneficiary has other payment claims pending on the operation, the programme simply offsets the debt. If it cannot, the case goes to the AD&C, which makes all payments and is responsible for recovering undue ones. The agency then looks for money owed to the same beneficiary in other programmes, and even in other funding periods, including the earlier QREN and the current Portugal 2030.
If that fails, the beneficiary gets a notice giving 30 days to pay. After that, interest may be charged, and an unpaid debt goes to the Tax and Customs Authority for coercive collection. Of the 400 million still owed, "a large part is already with the Tax Authority," she said.
Since the end of last year, beneficiaries have been able to settle through a single payment document (Documento Único de Cobrança), which the agency says has sped up the process. Portugal 2030 already has its own list: 60 debts registered, 36 of them closed.
The Serrão case
Among the debts still unrecovered are the 41 million euros owed by the businessman Manuel Serrão over an alleged scheme to misuse EU support. The State has not been able to recover a single euro, ECO reports. Portugal has nonetheless already had to make good the money to Brussels: the claims lodged against Serrão's two insolvent companies, Seletiva Moda and No Less, were deducted from the expenditure Portugal reports to the European Commission for reimbursement.
Why it matters
Under Portugal 2020, beneficiaries presented invoices, which national authorities submitted to the Commission to be reimbursed. Spending that Brussels rejects, or that national checks later disallow, has to be recovered from the beneficiary or paid by the Portuguese taxpayer. For companies and associations now drawing on Portugal 2030 and the recovery plan, the message is the same: grant money that cannot be justified is money owed, and it can follow a beneficiary into every other programme it applies to.
