"We do not have the financial envelope, we do not know what is coming to support these powers that are being transferred, so obviously, as the person responsible for the management of this Chamber, I cannot accept". This is how socialist Francisco Martins, president of the Lagoa Chamber, explains his executive's decision, approved this week at a meeting, not to accept the transfer of powers sought by the Government.
Speaking to journalists, the mayor stressed that "from the beginning" had been said by the municipalities, even by their national association, ANMP, that "they would only accept the powers that were being transferred when they knew the financial envelopes".
According to the diploma approved by the Government, municipalities across the country have until the end of this month of January to say whether or not they accept the transfer of competences. Even if they refuse, it is certain that from 2021 onwards, they will have to assume them. So, what practical effects does the Lagoa Council's refusal have?
«Now we are approving or not the competences for 2019. And for 2019, it would have to come in the State Budget or in any other figure, what is the financial package», explains Francisco Martins. And that, so far, has not happened.
“In my council, I have to know what these transfers will mean. Just look at the transfers of employees: in education and health, administrative personnel and workers' personnel and funding to pay their salaries will be transferred to the Chambers. But we all know that these services are already deficient in personnel, the ratios are below and the obligation to increase the staff would pass to the municipalities», contextualizes the Lagoon mayor.
In addition, «I will inherit 12 more pieces of equipment, I'm going to have to have more people in the maintenance and administrative part, I'm going to have to have technicians in areas that we don't have today, because we didn't have those skills».
Now, defends the mayor of Lagoa, «all these costs will have to be very well accounted for. And the responsible way is not to accept transfers at this stage».
«Each one knows about his house and I know about mine. I rotate mine with rigor and the proof of that are the indicators of the Câmara de Lagoa, so I'm not going to write a blank check», he also emphasizes.
Francisco Martins says he has “other objections” in relation to the law on transfer of competences: “on the one hand, competences are being passed on to us that tell us nothing. On the other hand, they are passing on very good skills, but we have to quantify them».
It is that, he insists, “the document, from my point of view, has many flaws. The worst thing you do in this country – and you do a lot! – is to pass legislation which, from the outset, is already wrong”.
The mayor of Lagoa also stresses that he will have to "ask the Government" why, after years of negotiations with the ANMP, where the financial issue has always been essential, there is still no understanding.
It will have to ask "the Government why the financial package has not already been approved, as the competences have to be accepted, or not, by the end of this month".
In the Algarve, the Municipality of Olhão, also with a socialist majority, has already decided against that of Lagoa, intending to assume, already in 2019, all the powers that the Government decided to decentralize.
The municipality of Olhano, chaired by the socialist António Miguel Pina, guarantees that it is prepared “to fully assume, this year, the new responsibilities provided for in the framework law for the transfer of competences to local authorities and to intermunicipal entities”.
However, last week, the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP) demanded that the Government and political parties with parliamentary seats clarify "quickly" how to guarantee the financing of the decentralization of competences for the municipalities.
According to the ANMP president, the Government and the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic "must quickly clarify how the financing of decentralization will be guaranteed, that is, how the financial resources will be transferred to local authorities and intermunicipal entities for execution new skills'.
This clarification has to be made “before the missing sectorial decree-laws [decentralization] come into force”, underlined Manuel Machado, after a meeting of the Board of Directors of the ANMP Association, in Coimbra.
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