The Oliveira do Hospital Municipal Assembly approved, by majority, the Municipal Council’s Management Report and Accounts for the year 2023. In a press release, the municipality highlights “a management balance of 2.5 million euros” in this which is the second year of the current municipal executive’s term in office.
In the text sent to newsrooms, the Municipality highlights the “high budget execution rate”, with an execution of 88.2 percent in terms of revenue and 80 percent in terms of expenditure. José Francisco Rolo, president of the Chamber, highlights the huge investment that was made: “We were able to obtain the highest revenue ever – 26.5 million euros – and also to make the largest investment in memory: 9.4 million of euros”.
The mayor highlights 2023 as “the year in which the Municipality of Oliveira do Hospital received the most funds through European Union community funds, in terms of co-financed projects. We are talking about 4.8 million euros, which represents an increase of 65 percent” compared to the previous year. This year, Oliveira do Hospital was the third Municipality in the District of Coimbra with the highest amount of community fundraising through the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).
“We focus our management on a daily basis on the ability to capture new sources of financing through national and community programs, in an unstoppable quest to improve the infrastructure and living conditions of Oliveirenses”, highlights the mayor. Among the investments completed during this year, highlights are the requalification of large areas of the historic center of Oliveira do Hospital, the creation of conditions so that the Educational Campus can open in the next academic year, the completion of the expansion of the Industrial Zone of Oliveira do Hospital and the reinforcement of the proximity model and decentralization of competences, providing parish councils with greater financial autonomy, with an allocation of funds exceeding 700 thousand euros.
In José Francisco Rolo’s view, “the 2023 management report and accounts clearly reflect the practice of a rigorous budgetary policy and proactivity in the search for new sources of investment, which have allowed us to present high budget execution rates” and also “current savings of around 2 million euros, a budget balance that rose to more than 2.5 million euros and a slight negative net result of 135 thousand euros (-0.8%), combined with the maintenance of short payment terms to suppliers”. In the press release, the municipality emphasizes that these accounts “express a comfortable financial situation for the Municipality, despite the brutal impact of inflation and price revisions in the municipality’s accounts”.
The mayor also notes that the slight negative result is “associated with the increase in personnel expenses which, compared to 2022, rose 8.5 percent – 478 thousand euros more, therefore –, due to the increases approved in the State Budget for 2023 and despite a four percent reduction in the number of employees.” On the other hand, the Municipality of Oliveira do Hospital also reports having been faced with rising interest rates. “To give you an idea of this increase, the Municipality paid interest between 2007 and 2022, approximately 78 thousand euros, when in 2023 it paid 114 thousand euros. In other words, he paid more in one year than in 15 years”, he points out.
Local authority will seek new sources of revenue in 2024
Rolo emphasizes that it will be in this context that the Municipality “will reinforce, in 2024, the search for new sources of financing through applications and negotiating capacity with the Government and public bodies, which will allow the increase of a set of initiatives that would not be possible to carry out alone with municipal financing”.
“We will continue to invest in community funds and PRR programs as a source of financing for various projects, with focus and commitment on starting the execution of projects already approved, such as the Remodeling of the Oliveira do Hospital Health Center, support for Accommodation Student, via the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra, the acceleration of the implementation of the Local Housing Strategy, the Affordable Housing Program and the National Urgent and Temporary Accommodation Grant”, he said.
