The Chamber of Faro it will wait for 2020 to accept the decentralization of competences in the areas of Justice and Beaches, but will assume the rest. Monchique, on the other hand, will not accept, for the time being, any of the responsibilities that the Government wants to pass on to the Municipal Chambers.
In a first phase, it is concerned with competences on the Beaches, the Related Modalities of the Games of Fortune and of Chance, the Tourism Promotion, the Communication Routes, the Justice, the Civil-Firefighters Protection, the Structures of Assistance to the Citizen, the Heritage Public Real Estate and Public Parking.
Rogério Bacalhau says that his «desire was to accept all the skills that have already been published». However, «we have already brought a proposal to the Council meeting and the Municipal Assembly not to accept, in 2019, the competences in the area of Beaches and Justice».
The mayor explains that «we held meetings with the Captaincy and, considering that it is already January, it would be difficult for us to assume these competences. We need to prepare and be able to respond to requests». Therefore, "we decided to wait for the next year and we will enter, in January 2020, with these two competences".
Rogério Bacalhau also explains that, in the case of beaches, «we are talking about the licensing of events that take place on the beaches, concessions… there is a lot of administrative things that need to be addressed. If the skills had been released three or four months ago, we would probably have been able to provide that answer».
In relation to competences that are not yet ready to be taken on by local authorities, such as Education, «we already have transfer of competences, we feel safe, to take on this area. In the case of Health, we will probably wait for the next year. But these diplomas have not yet come out».
Regarding the funding that will come to the Chambers, so that they can assume the competences, Rogério Bacalhau says he is not “concerned about this. When the skills pass to us, funding has to come. This is the Government's problem, not ours».
Se Faro will assume seven competences, Monchique will not receive any for the time being. The Municipal Assembly and the City Council rejected the transfer "as long as the appropriate financial compensations that must accompany them are not well defined".
In a post on Facebook, Rui André, mayor of Monchique, says he is “a convinced advocate of decentralization and even regionalization, from the outset, but I do not agree with loose and unambitious measures that only seem to want to comply with calendars, whose interest is not, in any way, that of the populations we serve and of a better service that we must render to them».
However, the mayor clarifies that he ponders, "after clarified many doubts and issues raised, propose to accept these and other competences whenever he can guarantee that, on the one hand, I can do better than the State is doing at the moment and, on the other, that we are not being mere tasks of the Government in carrying out tasks that do not interest the central State».
Rui André defends «a true decentralization process that involves local elected representatives and that discusses the best way to build a more effective response to the real problems and concerns of the people we serve and who must always be at the center of the policies we implement, whether at the level national, regional or local'.
Among the other municipalities in the Algarve, the decentralization of competences is not consensual either. Lagoa e Silves, for example, will reject all transfers of competences for the time being. Lagos will only accept one competence, while Tavira, such as Faro, will accept some and Portimão e Olhão will accept all responsibility.
The transfer of new competences to the municipalities was regulated in 11 diplomas approved by the Council of Ministers, in 2018, after negotiation with the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities. The local authorities had until yesterday, January 31st, to decide if they will assume competences and which ones.
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