São Brás Municipal Assembly approves 2020 accounts of the Chamber

The 2020 accounts of the City of São Brás de Alportel were approved by the Municipal Assembly on Tuesday, 29 June.

On the table were the results of the financial execution after “an atypical year, which raised the level of demand in budget management and optimization of the capacity to respond to the population's needs”.

"This year in particular, the pandemic meant that we had to reprogram projects and allocate considerable funds to the Covid-19 Municipal Emergency Fund with well-defined priorities: preventing and combating the pandemic, supporting families, the community and defending the local economy" , according to Vítor Guerreiro, mayor of São Brás de Alportel.

This was “a complex exercise, but carried out with responsibility and rigor, always safeguarding the balance of public accounts and the timely payment of all our commitments”.

The Covid-19 Municipal Emergency Fund "represented an investment of more than 280 thousand euros in supporting the community, fighting unemployment, encouraging entrepreneurship and promoting the local economy," said the Chamber.

«The reorganization of services, the strengthening of partnerships for the creation of new social responses, with a special focus on food, education, housing, economic recovery and support for entrepreneurship were some of the actions implemented in order to minimize the impact of the pandemic on daily life of São Brasenses», added the municipality.

Added to these additional expenses was the “significant reduction in municipal revenues, of 223.425 euros, corresponding to exemptions from occupation fees for stalls in the municipal market, public space and advertising, exemption from fixed tariffs for the water and sanitation and solid waste service and also from rents from commercial spaces, among other amounts invalidated by the cancellation of initiatives or services due to the pandemic».

Despite all these financial and social challenges, the Chamber managed to “maintain a level of budget execution of 88,3% and the implementation of structuring projects for the development of the municipality, with an emphasis on accessible mobility, environmental quality and tourist development in the territory ».

The 2020 Accountability Report was supervised by an external auditor who issued the legal certification “without reservations and without emphasis”.