Deputy President considers that the National Strategic Plan for Decentralization is an “added value” for Brava

The deputy mayor of Brava, Councilwoman Ivone Cardoso, considered today that the National Strategic Plan for Decentralization is an “added value” for Brava, taking into account its peculiarities.

Ivone Cardoso was speaking on the sidelines of the presentation of the plan to the entities and citizens of Brava, made by the general director of Decentralization, José Ricardo Livramento, considering that this plan is a “quite opportune model” for the situation of Brava.

According to the same source, Brava is a small municipality and the possibility of raising funds is very low, hence this model is an “added value”, taking into account what was presented.

This plan, as highlighted by the mayor, requires the involvement of all sectors, both the city council and the citizens and demands an active participation of all.

“It does not centralize power only in the Government, but gives the municipal councils the autonomy to make decisions, as well as the decentralized services that exist in the municipalities that are able to provide answers to the citizens without having to request them from the central Government.

Likewise, Fernanda Burgo, president of the Municipal Assembly of Brava, welcomed the plan, noting that it is “very ambitious” and that it will bring several benefits to Brava, since it is a peripheral island in the country, which has several constraints on its development, both economic and social, and this plan presents greater social and economic cohesion in the belief that it will guide Brava on the path of development.

On his turn, José Ricardo Livramento, Director General of Decentralization explained that in addition to presenting the plan, they are carrying out a survey of the competences to be reinforced in the municipal chambers through training and collective equipment at municipal level.

He also argued that the plan is "quite important" for municipalities and civil society, with a view to combating regional asymmetries and the pursuit of national equity in terms of quality of life.

In this sense, he stressed that "there is a need to reinforce competences at the level of the municipalities with a successive transfer of powers from the Central Government to the municipalities and to civil society".

Regarding the issue of administrative decentralization, he explained that it is the transfer of administrative powers to the municipalities and to civil society that must necessarily be accompanied by reinforcement of financial resources, it will also be reinforced with human resources and infrastructures so that it can be carry out these functions that will be transferred from the Government to the municipal chambers and to civil society.

Regarding financial decentralization, he highlighted that this will allow municipal councils to have a greater revenue collection capacity, since the reality of the different municipalities in the country is different, where some have greater revenue capacity and others smaller, which implies a need of positive discrimination for those municipalities with lower revenue collection capacity.

It also highlighted the need to reinforce the powers attributed to administrative deconcentration, with delegates representing the central government sectors having greater autonomy in the exercise of their functions.

With this plan, this official stressed that it is possible to have a national territory that is as equitable as possible and that the Government has the “full conviction” that power, being as close as possible to those who benefit from the policies, in this case, the citizen himself, will have a greater effect and a greater production of income for the whole country and everyone will win at national level.