Dealing with any official matter involving the City Council of Lagoa is now much simpler for citizens, with the creation of the Balcão Único Municipal (BUM), which occupies the entire ground floor of the Paços do Concelho building and brings together the main municipal services.
The BUM was officially inaugurated this Friday, by the Secretary of State for Local Authorities, former mayor Carlos Miguel, who confessed to having gone through "a process like this as mayor" and therefore knows "how difficult it is, but also how important it is».
The Secretary of State expressed the Government's commitment "to modernization, with processes like this one, and administrative simplification, through Simplex" and underlined the importance of a municipality having "aggregated services in a single space", to simplify life for citizens .
However, he stressed the need to "break routines", stressing that there is still "a lot of work to be done" on the part of technicians and employees of the Lagoa Council, in order to adapt themselves to the new procedures introduced by BUM. «The space can be very modern, which it is, but if people aren't committed, it looks good in photography, but it doesn't serve its purpose», warned Carlos Miguel.
For his part, the president of the Chamber Francisco Martins said that the opening of the BUM is "a small step that we have to take towards administrative modernization." But it is one of many necessary steps. “This is a bigger step, but we haven't reached the goal yet. There is a lot of financial investment here, but this implies a change in the mindset of those who provide and those who use the service».
The mayor praised the work done by the City Council team, stressing that «in addition to all these people who are here at the front office, in the service to the public, behind there is a battery of people working».
“Now it is no longer necessary to go to the water office at the back, then leave the building and go around the outside to go to the treasury, and come back here. Everything is concentrated in a single place, at this One Stop Shop», added Francisco Martins.
The mayor of Lagoa also apologized for "in these early days we still haven't been able to respond to all requests", since the new procedures are still being adopted and need to be adapted. «But «give us a few days for the machine to be fine-tuned».
For his part, the Secretary of State for Local Authorities was keen to point out that he is «perfectly aware of what these times of crisis have cost Algarve's municipalities, with the huge losses in IMT». For this reason, the official made a point of praising "the management of this house", recalling that the Council of Lagoa has only used 10% of its debt capacity and "an average payment period of 18 days", which, he stressed, " is to cause envy».
Therefore, concluded Carlos Miguel, «this Chamber, with its financial health, has all the conditions to look to the future».
If, for now, the Balcões Único Municipais, like the one in Lagoa, only concentrate services from the municipalities, they will soon be able to extend their functions to services until now only provided by central administration bodies, such as obtaining a criminal record. And these services may even be made available by the City Councils, but also by the Parish Councils.
In this sense, on the sidelines of the inauguration, the Secretary of State for Local Authorities announced that the Government will decentralize services that are common to the 308 municipalities, indicating that the powers to be attributed to the Town Halls and Parish Councils are being considered, taking into account the financial package to be allocated to each of these competences.
Carlos Miguel added that, when the financial package corresponding to each of the competences to be decentralized is defined, dialogue with the mayors will begin. By the way, what the Sul Informação he learned, the issue has already been discussed between the member of government and local authorities, during his visit to the Chamber of Lagoa.
However, he warned, the Government plans to implement a uniform and transversal package of services, common to all municipalities, «and not a decentralization à la carte , in which some municipalities take some things and others take others, depending on their convenience”.
According to Carlos Miguel, for this decentralization and modernization of services, «no more money is needed, but concerted efforts». And it is this work of concertation that is already being done, with municipalities and parishes.
Lagoa Municipal Single Counter:
The Balcão Único de Lagoa is equipped with the main services that it is important to put in a direct interaction with citizens. In other words, it offers a multi-channel, personalized service, whether personal, computer or telephone, that the Chamber wants of high quality and competence, always in the sense of the satisfaction of its population in a direct response to the issues that arise on a daily basis.
The space has six individual service posts, two advanced treasury posts, two technical service offices and a self-use post, where citizens can consult on the processes related to their requests.
BUM has continuous service hours, between 9:00 am and 16:30 pm, from Monday to Friday.
For the proper functioning of this new asset, in which it is necessary to enhance the image and functionality of its agents based on professionalism and friendliness, the municipal commitment was focused on training the team of attendants, in the acquisition of modern and in the creation of an area decorated in cheerful colours, located right at the entrance to the main building of the City Council.
Photos: Elisabete Rodrigues|Sul Informação:
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