Before the process was started the entire organisation was working without any kind of control, not only in the financial sector, but also in terms of administrative procedures. The inability to meet legal deadlines, the loss of files, documents, and even invoices or other documents regarding expenditures were very frequent.
Not only deadlines were broken, but also advisory reports and responses were technically incorrect, as there was no check and balance on municipal collaborators. No mapping or auditing of procedures was implemented.
There was no practice for budgeting (in time and cost) the works developed by the services, such as, for example, a building construction, the making of a project, etc. Procedures like cost projection, anticipation of necessary materials, and much less the periods necessary to complete any task were never made.
The Stores and Warehouses services supplied materials without controlling the final use, making it impossible to differentiate between what was sent to a worksite, delivered to a Civil Parish [Junta de Freguesia] or any other entity. The control of existing items was not implemented and only memory could inform what materials had been delivered and to whom.
The management and maintenance of all the municipal buildings was made directly by the Municipality, including the 53 schools of elementary education level. In a municipality with a territory comprising 360km2 it was frequent to make 35 kms each way just to take the measurements of a broken window glass.
The costs of these trips as well as the time were never evaluated, as well as the cost-benefit relation; the only result was the evidence that the service was not efficient because several days were needed to solve a simple issue.
The clients are the local citizens who directly or indirectly use the municipal services when they need ant service, document or municipal license.
In an indirect way we have all those who use the municipal equipments and infrastructures, such as, for example, school buildings, streets and roads, and water supply services.
By creating better conditions for task control and performance assessment of the municipal services, we will have better responses and an higher degree of satisfaction, reducing complaints and dissatisfaction towards municipal services.
The present Municipal Executive identified this situation as soon as it was elected, therefore it was decided that some of the main tasks were to implement control procedures, security and reliability of information, and budget control, in order not only to control but also to reduce expenditure, guaranteeing simultaneously that matters would be subject to faster decisions.
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