Local council transparency index led in the Algarve by Loulé

This year’s Municipal Transparency Index was released today and makes saddening reading for residents of Castro Marim, Silves, Alcoutim, Lagos and Aljezur which have scored poorly against their municipal colleagues countrywide.

Loulé ranks number 18 in the country and leads the Algarve councils in its openness and accountability in its dealings with ratepayers who many Algarve councils still see as the enemy, deserving the ‘mushroom treatment’ and kept at bay.

The executive director of the Association of Civic Transparency and Integrity commented on the national picture,

"In a good way, we can say we have five municipalities that have reached a good level. ‘A few’ is right, but last year none of them reached the minimum acceptable level," said João Paulo Batalha, adding that the authorities who made "the effort of providing data and aiming for transparency have had results. However, the average level still is inadequate."

"It's a worry because the issues of economic and financial transparency are legal obligations, so it would not be unreasonable to have an average of 100%. In the area of public procurement there was a slight decline in the scores "said Batalha.

Other themes analysed and which showed worse results than last year were the dissemination of information on taxes, duties, tariffs, prices and regulations.

In the list of 308 municipalities, 119 had acceptable or good ratings, while the rest obtained an insufficient classification.

For the Algarve, six councils achieved the acceptable rating, the remaining ten have work to do to gain the public’s trust.

The region was led by model pupil Loulé at number 18 nationally, then Lagoa at 38 and, despite its troubles, Portimão in 79th place.

At the end of the performance table lies Aljezur with its myriad council problems in the past reflected in the score and Lagos whose dirty fight to get its way over the Bar Wars saga and other local issues has seen its attitude and accountability sink to new lows.

Silves council, now under Rosa Palma currently gives the impression of a more open style; anything is an improvement on the previous regime of Isabel Soares whose dubious property dealings and Viga D'ouro corruption case necessitated keeping much of the details of the council's dealings close to her chest.

The Municipal Transparency Index, first released last year, analyses the general openness of councils by using 76 parameters.

Of Portugal's 308 councils, the Algarve's scored thus;

#   Council

18 Loulé
38 Lagoa 

79 Portimao
88 Albufeira
110 Faro

119 São Brás de Alportel
128 Vila do Bispo

141 Olhao
144 Tavira

148 Vila Real de Santo António 
169 Monchique
174 Castro Marim 

199 Silves
205 Alcoutim 
206 Lagos
237 Aljezur 

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