Lagos council has managed a drop in its borrowings from €8,355,656 to €598,056, nearly €8 million according to its finance report approved on May 11th.
The council also ended the year without any payments overdue by more than 90 days, "one of the main indicators of a financial improvement and a major confidence factor that the municipality can demonstrate for its suppliers."
Lagos council stresses that one of its "primary objectives has been local authority debt reduction which in the short-term has been reached."
The Lagos guidelines are "the adoption of measures to attract investments in order to increase economic growth and job creation; the consolidation of Lagos’ role as a dynamic regional centre for culture and sports, based also on a vision of tourism to attract visitors; intensifying action to meet the basic needs of the poorest in order to mitigate the effects of the economic crisis; and the appreciation of the contribution of all council employees to provide even better service to citizens."
One of the ‘investments’ to start work in September 2014 on the Dona Maria II bridge, closed since April 2012, “which marks an important moment for Lagos, for allowing us to resolve a vital access situation for schools, hotels, the port, the railway terminal and companies and traders at the marina."
There has been much internal argument at the council about the budget for the bridge repair which now will cost an estimated €200,000 due to 'unforeseen problems' which some councillors say have not been explained properly.
With regard to the repaving of the historic centre of the city during 2014, this too encountered problems and went over budget as many streets were in a worse condition than expected, especially the underlying water pipes.
Under Social Action and Housing, Lagos has made some progress in improving its older social housing stock.
There are many areas where users cry out for more spending with rubbish, graffiti and unkempt public areas at the top of the list, but an overall reduction in council debt anywhere will be seen by ratepayers as a positive development.
The delay over the bridge repair is the most concerning as an application for EU funding was approved in April 2014 and the €1 million project was due to start that summer with a completion date of June 2015.
Comments
Using also this innovative seizure of assets before court hearings and another ultimate sanction so far unheard of in Portugal.
Applying 'Controlling Mind' legislation. So that a minion who does wrong can safely dob in the superior - the controlling mind - who told them to do it.
If we guess that at least some Portuguese are not genetically skewed to misbehave - this would allow them to speak out without risking their jobs or lives.
Remember that several thousand current Novo Banco (ex-BES) bank staff all took part in secretly shifting 'safe' deposit account holders savings into the risky 'lose everything' investment accounts.
None thought for an instant that what they were doing was fundamentally against good banking practice. Acts that entirely defeated the internationally accepted principles of good stewardship of someone else's money.
After The Big Splurge, only two councils remained anywhere near solvent with Portimao famously leading the way with its particular brand of fiscal incontinence.
Any of them now reducing interest payments on their borrowings has to be seen as a good thing, even if it is really a 'less bad' thing.
When in a more developed country councils should have surplus funds to park in banks in Iceland.