Cut "some fat", renegotiate the debt to the banks and sell assets, if there is private investment involved. These are the pillars of the financial policy being put into practice by Conceição Cabrita, elected in October for her first term as mayor of Vila Real de Santo António.
O Sul Informação spoke with Conceição Cabrita, in what was the first in-depth interview granted by the Vila-Realense mayor to a media organization since she was elected. And the financial issue was one of the points focused, considering that a few weeks ago, a report by the Public Finance Council placed this municipality in the Eastern Algarve as being in financial collapse.
A reality that Conceição Cabrita denies, bearing in mind that «this issue of debt they talk so much about is from 2014 to 2016». Two years ago, according to the Financial Yearbook of Portuguese Municipalities, the Liabilities Liabilities (Debt) of VRSA stood at 76,2 million euros. Since then, assured the mayor, the municipality's liabilities have been “decreasing”, although it is still “high”.
«What is weighing on this debt here? Essentially, it's the interest we're paying the bank, which is what we want to get down to. We are currently trying to renegotiate them. On the other hand, we are trying to clean up some fat. Because, despite having already belonged to the previous executive, Luís Gomes is one person and I am another, so the way to manage the Chamber is different».
“We have already reduced some expenses and we are going to apply a new set of measures in this direction. We have had many meetings with the division heads and we will soon present these measures of financial containment”, he announced.
The last few months, revealed Conceição Cabrita to the Sul Informação, were of «introspection». «We were tidying up the house, with the councilors getting to know their files, how the new rules will be. We are preparing, we are making new regulations for the social area and in relation to associations. Because, in the past, we gave a lot. I don't regret what I did, this was my area. But now we have to rethink, according to the investment we made, how we have to pay it and, therefore, how the Chamber becomes self-sustainable,” he said.
Another way of balancing the accounts is the disposal of 'investor assets'. Conceição Cabrita assures that the idea “is not to alienate for alienation”, but rather to do business that allow to boost the local economy, as those that were done, in the past, with the Hotel Guadiana and com the Pestana Group, which will install a Pousada de Portugal in the historic center of VRSA.
The measures to be announced aim to respond to the financial problems of the municipality of VRSA, which led the Council to ask for 24,3 million euros from the Local Economy Support Program (PAEL) in 2014 and to resort to a new financing instrument, this time the Municipal Support Fund (FAM), in 2016, receiving an amount of 19,6 million euros.
Loans are, moreover, the item that weighs most on VRSA's debt. But its contraction was necessary, argues Conceição Cabrita, because, in this way, it was possible to advance with important investments for the municipality. When the current president arrived at the Chamber, as councilor of Luís Gomes – “I can never separate from the 12 years that I was here with the engineer Luís Gomes, I spent eight years as councilor and four as vice president” – “this land of ours, this my land, was doomed to abandonment», he claims.
«We already had a debt of 30 million euros here. This is important to say! And, as we went along, we had to do and implement projects», he said. The heaviest was the investment in Basic Sanitation, which amounted to 65 million euros. But he was not the only one, guaranteed the Vila-Realian mayor.
“As soon as we arrived, we had to pay for 150 social housing units. Then we had to start the swimming pools and the library. The work on the swimming pools was practically starting, but we had to pay. The library only had the stone that had been cast and, at the moment, we have equipment there that works very well and that is all very well equipped», he added.
In the case of Basic Sanitation, recalled the town councilor from Vila Real, the investment made «saves us a lot of trouble». From the outset, fines from the European Union, as Portugal was on the verge of being "fined by the court at European level, for having the sewers flowing into the Guadiana river", something that "now no longer happens".
“Even more important than all that, was to put an end to all the damage we witnessed every time an abundant amount of rain fell. People cannot have short memories and have to realize that there were never more floods. Last year, it was an abnormal situation, because that huge amount of hail fell, allied to the rising tide. But that happens – the sinks clogged”, illustrated Conceição Cabrita to Sul Informação.
There was also a “great investment in the social component”. "We replaced the State in a number of situations, we killed many people's hunger", he guaranteed.
Another privileged area was education, which the teacher Conceição Cabrita assumes is her choice. “We requalified all schools. When I got here, practically nobody went to public preschool due to lack of conditions. Today, we like to have three open preschool rooms, where kids eat in canteens and have a balanced diet based on local products».
Conceição Cabrita also recalled that VRSA was "one of the first municipalities to offer school manuals" to students from 1st to 4th grade. “We gave support with regard to transport, we helped the associations. All of this is an investment in the social component – which I see as an investment, not an expense».
With this, considers the mayor of VRSA, the city, "which before, practically nobody knew", is now "on the map". “Right now, we have a modern city, requalified, a municipality that is moving forward”, concluded Conceição Cabrita.
O Sul Informação will release, in the next few days, more articles resulting from the in-depth interview with Conceição Cabrita.
Photos: Fabiana Saboya |Sul Informação
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