Estela Silva / Lusa
The new president of ANMP, Pedro Pimpão, accompanied by the former president, Luísa Salgueiro
Local authorities complain about excessive bureaucracy in sending financial performance data to the State.
The overwhelming majority of Portuguese municipalities are not complying with the legal duty to report information to the Central Administration, a situation that led the Government to freeze funds for 283 of the 308 municipal councils over the last year.
According to the , only 25 municipalities managed to avoid any penalty, according to data from the Ministry of Economy and Territorial Cohesion.
The law provides that failure to submit mandatory data on financial performance will result in retention of 20% of the twelfth of current State transfers provided for in the Budget. This percentage, which will increase in 2024, has been the target of strong criticism from mayors, who defend a return to the 10% penalty previously applied.
By 2025, more than 90% of cameras failed at least once in fulfilling the reporting obligation. Of the total number of municipalities penalized, 112 suffered up to three monthly detentions, 98 were punished between four and six times and 38 between seven and nine occasions.
Mayors point to excessive bureaucracy as the main cause of delays. Despite the existence of technological means that would allow automatic data sharing, cameras remain obliged to send the same information to multiple entitiessuch as the Tax Authority, Social Security, Court of Auditors, Banco de Portugal and General Inspectorate of Finance.
The president of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP), Pedro Pimpão, defends the urgent simplification of procedures and warns of the increased difficulties faced by smaller municipalities. According to ANMP data, sending information to the State consumes around 102 thousand hours of work per year, requiring the permanent dedication of one to three employees per municipality.
The Ministry of Economy recognizes the problem and admits that the future review of the Local Finance Law should reduce redundancies and the number of reports required. Among the proposals defended by the municipalities are the centralization of financial reporting obligations in a single legal document and the reduction in the frequency of communications.
