Reign in the local authorities

Municipality of Cascais
"Proud" owner of 11 public companies

Yesterday I suggested diminishing the number of municipalities to 40 and closing down every single "freguesia" in:

Close to 5000 local authorities in Portugal?

I continue to think so.  But I forgot to mention that it would be the ideal moment to close down every single municipal company.  There are a very large number of them in Portugal and they cost everybody a great deal.

Just in my municipality, Cascais, we have eleven (*).  These kind of "companies" are more often than not used to get jobs for "the boys" at salaries much above the public sector.  They often loose money and need to be resupplied by the municipalities.  It is completely impossible to find out whether they are cost effective or not.  They are in effect a monopoly in their area (the municipality).  I have a postulate.  The degree of corruptness in a municipality is directly proportional to money spent on (e.g. number of) municipal companies.

In my humble opinion all the employees should be counted as public employees and their passives should be added to the public debt.  It will not be easy as nobody even knows the exact number of municipal companies in Portugal.

So shut them all down.  If a municipality is not able to handle, say garbage collection, then make a public tender for the service for two year periods.  Nobody in the municipality should be allowed to choose the winning company.

A so called white book with an analysis of the sector has been made public (hat tip "O Público).  There are at least 14000 employees and 334 of these companies.  They have a debt of at least 2.4 billion (1.5% of the GDP).  The only problem is that the real numbers are much larger.  We just don't know how large.

I am not really surprised.  After all even the state does not know its exact number of employees...

(*)  One of the companies in Cascais is called EMAC, "Empresa Municipal de Ambiente de Cascais", Municipial Company of the Environment of Cascais.  Do notice the PC name of the company.  A great way of misdirection if necessary. We call it the Municipial Company of António Capucho ("Empresa Municipal de António Capucho").  Mr. António Capucho is the former president (**) of the municipality of Cascais.  I have no idea whether the company was created by him or the former crook, president of Cascais, Judas.
What I do believe is that we loose money because of that company.
What I do know is what I have seen in the past.  I often run on the beach in Carcavelos in the morning.  Usually, I and the fantastic cleaners (***) are the first on the beach.  Quite a while ago they were redoing part of the beach walk and at a large expense building an ocean breaker to keep the sand from disappearing from the beach.
Several mornings I saw large trucks from EMAC driving away truck loads of sand from the beach.  It is illegal to take away sand from the beach and I wonder who came to benefit from all that sand...

(**) Presidents of municipalities have far too much power, just as their inflated title suggest.  A reform of the municipalities should curb this power as much as possible.  A good start of psychological value would be a new less imposing title.

(***) They are also from EMAC, I believe, and actually do a great job.  It must cost a fortune.  A lot of the public using the beach are swines and pollute.  Some civic lessons would be nice and could save money...

Close to 5000 local authorities in Portugal?

There are 308 municipalities ("conselhos, câmaras") and 4359 local administrative units ("freguesias").  The latter are a form of an administrative parish.

In the old days (20 years ago) a trip to the North from Lisbon could easily take a day.  A trip of 40 km into the countryside could sometimes take two hours because of heavy traffic and miserable roads.

However the roads and public transports are very good now and the country seems much smaller.  Considering the Internet there is in fact no longer a reason for so many entities in Portugal.

Thus the only real structural measure implemented by the current government to diminish the size of the public sector:  The civil governments ("governos civis") have practically been closed down.  They were a kind of representative of the central government locally.

The government has talked about shutting down "freguesias".  First there was talk about 1000 now the number is much lower as the "freguesias" are protesting.

In 20 years in Portugal we have visited our "freguesia" once or twice.  They do however have a number of local activities, which we have attended.  They have a building, employees and thus spend money.

We have visited our "câmara" a few times.  First to get married and the afterwards to get a building license.  But otherwise never.  They have lots of buildings and employees, and spend a lot of money.  They also have created an enormous wasteful structure of companies owned by the municipalities.  Lots of "jobs for the boys".

I would suggest a more radical change than the government proposes:

40 municipalities and 0 "freguesias".  The "freguesias" could continue, but then only with voluntary workers and a building for meetings.  There are lots and lots of countries without" freguesias".

There are cities in the world with "câmaras" the size of Portugal.  With modern technology and other modern infrastructures it makes no sense with so many local authorities as we have today.

I would furthermore suggest that the "câmaras" no longer would receive income from constructions.  That is no fees for building licences and no income from property tax.  This should all go to the state.  The state could then redistribute to all municipalities.

Additionally, the "câmaras" should no longer be allowed to decide on what land is for construction or the degree of permitted construction density without getting the direct approval of the population and one or more state agencies.

Considering all the bureaucracy, waste and corruption associated to local authorities this is the only sensible plan of action to take.

The other day on TV a sad truth was revealed.  There are only two kinds of business in Portugal that has more than a 1000% profit.  Drugs and the manipulation of land value.  The latter must be stopped as it is easy to do and it is more harmful than the former.

How many work for us?

Interestingly the municipalities who have hired since 2008, i.e. during the crisis, will be forced to cut down by 3% on the number of public employees.  And that already in 2012.

I feel sorry for the people loosing their jobs, but ecstatic concerning the possibility of smaller local authorities and just the thought of municipalities being forced to save are good news.

However, how can the state demand that municipalities cut down 3%?  It does not even know it self how many public employees there are?!  It is a wonder, that they all receive a salary and a pension.  In fact that is probably why some receive more than just one...

Get your act together and tell us exactly how many public employees Portugal has - it is an public embarrassment and a proof of your incompetence you don't know.

Update:
Today the Público (hat tip) can tell us that the government will publish the numbers of public employees adhering to general strike tomorrow.  I doubt the numbers will be trustworthy from either the government, because of incompetence, and from the unions because of exaggeration.  You will know the government is lying if it gives us percentages.  Those would clearly be inventions as the total number of public employees is unknown.

A roundabout on each corner

Nice tulips, nice columns, nice flags, nice grass, nice...

Every other road intersection in Portugal has been turned into a roundabout.  This is actually good.  Portugal used to be the country in Europe with most traffic accidents and while there are a lot of accidents in roundabouts they are seldom serious.  They also, usually, make the traffic flow better.

Fascinatingly, every municipality in the country has entered into a contest.  How to make the prettiest (taste is subjective) most impressive roundabout.  It involves expensive landscaping, sculptures, lights, automatic watering of plants, weird colors etc.  Mayors, when they meet, brag about having the biggest one.

There are large number of pictures on this Portuguese blog.

The schools may be falling apart, ruins be found in the middle of city centers, and the poor be living on the streets.  But we will not save on the roundabouts as they show off our prosperity and ability to prioritize.  I suppose it makes sense.  Logically the people running the companies getting the construction and maintenance contracts are friends or family of local authorities.

Consider the advantages. There are many areas where the roundabouts are the only green areas - as the surroundings are covered with concrete.  However, small children fortunately do not go there to play often and rarely repeatedly.  Also, I always used to complain that I could not see where my tax money was spent.

It is alive

Note how a number of sculptures block the visibility in roundabouts.  Interestingly this is supposedly illegal according to Portuguese law and it sure does make the roundabouts a bit less safe.  But also more interesting in an adrenaline provoking manner.  Cars can literally come out of nowhere.  Cool.

Close to where I live in Carcavelos on the coastal road going from Lisbon to Cascais, a couple of roundabouts have been remade at least four times.  The four lane coastal road is a very busy road.  Until a few years ago it was claimed the most dangerous road in Europe.  People have slowed down now, but some still drive very fast using it as if it were a highway - the drugged drunk disco dancer delinquents driving home early mornings are speed record holders.  Hence the proven fact that a car can be wrapped around a mast at 5 meters height and a 3 ton jeep can fly through billboard at 4 meters height.

This is how one of the roundabouts looks now (see here - Google Maps) - the other is similar (see here)

The traffic sign(s) to the right are destroyed once a week - minimum

One of the problems, when the roundabouts were built and replaced intersections, were that people overlooked them.  After all they did not use to be there.  So they would drive right through them.  Often several in one day. That scratched the first two designs as the cars would impact with whatever structures that were on them.  Even the old telephone poles they had put up as barriers were not up to the job.

The third one was rather amusing as it had a hole in the middle (there is an underground pedestrian passing underneath this one roundabout to get safely to the beach).  One day in the morning I saw a car had attempted to cross the roundabout.  The hole had swallowed it.  Good training for golfers perhaps?  I have noticed when putting with too much strength - the ball with too much speed never goes in, even when passing right over the hole.

Finally, we got the design shown above.  Some still claim with tenacity the metal ramps are sculptures - but no.  They are quite functional.  When a car drives across the roundabout they become airborne for quite a distance.  I saw a car proving so another morning.  It taught me two things.  Even while ramping the speed needs to be moderated somewhat - and cars can leave craters in a field.   

The ramps and the hole in the middle would be a nice combination - but the spoilsports have covered the hole with heavy duty grates.  Ah well, the coastal road in Carcavelos can still be put to good use by Darwin Award hopefuls.