The National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP) announced this Tuesday, January 23, that it will ask the Court of Auditors (TdC) for a hearing to jointly analyze the report on the process of transferring powers to local authorities.
To journalists, at the end of a meeting of the ANMP board of directors, the vice-president of the body José Ribau Esteves recalled that there is “a funding deficit”, particularly in the area of education.
The meeting with the TdC "is also useful" with a view to "deepening the matter" in question, said the also president of Aveiro City Council, elected by the PSD, who replaced the president of ANMP, the socialist Luísa Salgueiro, in the statements to the media, at the end of the board meeting, at the association's headquarters, in Coimbra.
On the 4th of January, the ANMP had already taken a position on the report of the Court of Auditors «relating to the process of transfer of competencies», considering that the document is «in line with the understanding of this association, considering that «the transfer of competencies for municipalities it represents an important process of reorganization of the State».
Ribau Esteves reiterated ANMP's opinion on the process: «it has not been free from constraints due, essentially, to the large human, financial and patrimonial resources involved, but also to the multiplicity of areas covered».
«Whether due to the complexity of the process, or due to the pandemic, or due to the need for renegotiation in the areas of education, health and social action, the deadlines initially established for the implementation of this process, effectively, ended up being prolonged in time, but, in a process with this complexity, the work carried out is always the most important», highlighted the ANMP in a statement, three weeks ago.
The meeting of the board of directors, whose work was led by Teresa Salgueiro, president of the Chamber of Matosinhos, included a debate on the draft resolution of the Council of Ministers regarding the launch of procedures for the attribution of municipal concessions for the distribution of low voltage electrical energy and also about the incentive program for collective public passenger transport (Incentive + TP).
Ribau Esteves admitted that, in the area of public passenger transport, there remain "many doubts about the financial sustainability" of the model adopted by the Government, in addition to the fact that municipalities still "do not have the necessary information" for a balanced implementation of the program, particularly when level of passes for young students, for example.
«There is an emergency, which is for us all to understand how this works», stressed the vice-president of ANMP, claiming that «many doubts have come from municipalities and inter-municipal communities».
Regarding the launch of the procedures for awarding local low voltage energy distribution concessions, Ribau Esteves acknowledged that the model proposed by the Government corresponds to «what the ANMP has always defended».
The association, he added, expresses its “availability to coordinate” the process, with the public tender expected to be launched by the end of this year.
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