The National Association of Municipalities (ANMP) is meeting today with the Minister of Finance to request support from Fernando Medina for municipalities, which are also experiencing financial difficulties due to inflation, especially in the field of education. The president of the ANMP, Luísa Salgueiro, should also discuss with the holder of the finance portfolio the issues related to the transfer of powers to the municipalities.
Yesterday, defending the “total” delegation of powers in the field of education to the municipalities, the mayor of Lisbon accused the state of not transferring the necessary funds, with “a deficit of 15 million euros”.
“The city council should play a role of total delegation of powers with regard to education, both in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd cycle, as well as in secondary […]. If we want to decentralize education, let’s decentralize education as a whole to the municipalities, because they know the city and the people best,” says Carlos Moedas (PSD).
On the sidelines of the inauguration of the Teixeira de Pascoais Basic School, in the Lisbon parish of Alvalade, the mayor of Lisbon said the country would work much better if it had “a real decentralization in education”, given that the powers of the local authorities should go beyond carrying out works on the school buildings and hiring operational assistants, and also become responsible for hiring teachers.
“I am very sorry that this is the only role of city councils,” stressed the social democrat, noting that the process of decentralizing powers from central government to local authorities is lacking, especially in the fields of education and health, so the municipality of Lisbon “is not happy” with the current situation, which creates “a great confusion for the citizens, namely: who does what?”.
Carlos Moedas indicated that the transfer of powers posed a financial problem in the Lisbon Chamber, as “the state did not provide the necessary resources in the decentralization process, because in these three years alone, since 2019, 15 million euros is missing”.
“In the last three years we have a ‘deficit’ of 15 million euros against what the state has given in terms of current expenditure with what we invest and in the last five years we have invested more than 60 million euros in construction and in what the equipment is,” he pointed out.
Asked about the negotiations with the government, the mayor explained that the negotiation process is continuous, but admitted that “these negotiations are not going well” regarding decentralization, because the Lisbon chamber is “short”.
“I have no problem with anything for Education promoting the room and I have no problem telling the people of Lisbon that we have a ‘shortage’ as to what this investment is because I’m going to do it anyway”, assured the Democrat, emphasizing that the state owes money to the municipality of Lisbon, because “it should guarantee funds and it isn’t”.
Carlos Moedas noted that negotiations with the government are being conducted at the level of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP), stressing that “it doesn’t work for Lisbon”.
“Of course the country sees itself as a whole, but Lisbon is a very special situation. We have 139 schools under the responsibility of all works and maintenance in the city council, we have more than 2000 non-teaching employees and, therefore, it is a very big responsibility and requires a lot of resources,” said the mayor, who assured that he will continue to fight for the transfer of the necessary resources by the state.
Despite the fact that the Lisbon City Council is in a “shortage” because the state-transferred funds “are not arriving”, the mayor stressed that the most important thing is to continue to intervene, exemplified by the removal of asbestos in 13 schools in the city and the investment in “more than 18 projects” in the school building.
“It’s about changing things, even if you can’t do everything. But from the council side, we’ve managed to essentially replace the central state,” he assured.
On July 18, the ANMP and the government reached an agreement on the transfer of powers from the central administration to the municipalities, following a controversy that led to several mayors contesting the decentralization process, as resources were insufficient, mainly in the area of of health and education.
The approval of the agreement, in the General Council of the ANMP, was signed by PS, PSD and independents and voted against the CDU (PCP/PEV coalition).
with Lusa
Source: DN
