Citizens' Shops promised for all council areas

The Government announced today that it is to invest €8 million in its Strategy for Restructuring Support Services in Public Administration and create a Citizens' Shop in each and every municipality in the country, according to the Deputy Minister of Regional Development.

Poiares Maduro said that this plan, when executed, will enable that citizens will have greater access to public services while saving the government money by centralising services on a council-wide basis thus reducing staff and property costs.

During his launch speech, Maduro then referred to the money as a ‘planned investment’ and admitted that it was largely subsidized by EU funds.

The government needs to do something quickly about its volte face over the number of Finanças offices which in agreement with the Troika it was to halve. The savings achieved by spending the €8 million were not guessed at but may go a little way to make up for the lack of cost savings from laying off Finanças staff and closing their offices.

Poiares Maduro spoke of a ‘redefinition of the entire logic of customer service’ and to achieve his Utopian dream the Government will help municipalities, the charity sector, business associations and ‘Instituições Particulares de Solidariedade Social’ in order to provide greater outreach services by bringing them together under one roof.

In addition to the 34 existing Citizens' Shops, Maduro aims to set up 274 more at an average cost of €30,000. Unless he has a Masters degree in financial juggling the investment per council area appears inadequate unless there are aspects of the plan he is not divulging.

These Citizens' Shops are seen by government as the commercial center for state services. Maduro now defines them as being "a single space within in which officals help people access the web pages that provide state services, is to help fill in tax forms, to renew documents and to make appointments."

Maduro's grand launch is for a watered down version of the pilot Citizens' Shops such as the one in Faro which provides access to many government departments including

Administração Regional de Saúde do Algarve (ARS):
Instituto da Construção e do Imobiliário (INCI):
Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado (IRN):
Cartão de Cidadão e Passaporte
Certidões de Registo Civil, Comercial, Predial e Documento Único Automóvel (DUA)
Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras (SEF)
Câmara Municipal de Faro (CMF)
Faro, Gestão de Água e Resíduos (FAGAR)

Maduro is washing his hands of the management of his bright new world as the new Citizens' Shops will be managed by the municipalities and not by central government. Maduro added that he is already running pilot projects and the roll out of his scheme will start in July 2014 as the back office systems are tested. Only then can the minister see how long it will take to fully implement his reform and what the savings might be.

The minister did not commit to any cost savings, but as an example referred to the €500,000 that the state paid in rent for the Citizens' Shop in central Lisbon which has now been closed. Few grasped the relevance.

As for public employees Maduro said he did not envisage laying anyone off, hardly the sort of long-term cost savings the public expected in the current mood of anger and resentment from the private sector towards the state's reluctance to reduce the number of public employees, despite frequent assurances that it was planning to do so.

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