In the Municipal Assembly, the PSD abstained, rejecting the proposal to review and adjust the public works plan to be carried out by the SRU for this year and next. The proposal had been put together between the SRU and Lisbon City Council, and had already been approved by the entire council. The future of some investments is now...
The budget that SRU - the municipal public works company - presented to the Lisbon City Council (CML) at the beginning of 2022 has been revised, in a joint effort between the new board of directors of the municipal company - which has since taken office - and the city council. The amended version then passed into the hands of the Lisbon Municipal Assembly (AML), which, as always, has the last word, the last vote. If approved, the SRU would be able to start carrying out the projects set out in the timings agreed and with the budget it would receive from CML.
The vote took place on Tuesday, July 19, in the AML plenary session: the PSD abstained and, all told, the proposed revision did not pass. There are now several public works in the city that are, in theory, suspended or, at least, have an uncertain future. But let's get to the details...
What exactly happened?
On Tuesday, the municipal deputies voted in plenary session on a proposal to revise the SRU's plan for this year, which proposed changes to the initial budget. The vote covered two central documents: on the one hand, the revised version of the SRU's Plan of Activities and Budget (PAO) for 2022; on the other, a proposal that brings together the various additions to the different contracts signed between CML and the SRU and basically allows the PAO to be implemented. Both documents would have to be approved for them to come into force.
But, as Observador notesThe vote turned out to be so unexpected that even the President of the AML, Rosário Farmhouse, hesitated when announcing that the revision of the SRU plan had been rejected with the PSD abstaining. The PSD, which is led by Luís Newton in the AML, joined the PS, IL, PAN, PPM and the two independent deputies (Miguel Graça and Daniela Serralha) in the vote. abstention; BE, PCP, PEV, Livre, Chega and the President of the Benfica Parish Council, Ricardo Marques (PS), voted againstonly CDS, Aliança and MPT voted for favorThis was not enough for both documents to pass.
You can see the two documents voted on below:
What did the PSD claim? And what did the other parties say?
Luís Newton, leader of the PSD's municipal bench and also President of the Estrela Parish Council, said that his party disagrees with the "SRU's operational and management model" and that "no fundamental changes are being implemented so far" to it. "We have to be very clear. The PSD does not agree with the SRU's operating model. The PSD does not agree with this amendment proposed here today"Newton assured, adding that this is not the model that "the New Times represent"but pointing out that Lisbon City Council must "always be a good person" and keep the commitments already made.
When the PSD representative took to the pulpit to announce the party's vote - an abstention - it was already clear that the final vote would not be favorable. After all, BE had announced a vote against, PS also an abstention, as did IL. The Blocists, through their deputy Vasco Barata, consider that "a bad policy" the involvement of private individuals in the construction of affordable housing because "politically, it deepens the historical error of the public continuing to favor and finance private business". Despite valuing the urgency of interventions such as Quinta do Ferro, the BE regretted that the proposed revision of the SRU's plan revised downwards investment in public works with "cuts in housing and health" and the "end or disappearance of the ZER".
For his part, Rodrigo Mello Gonçalves, from IL, justified his abstention not by disagreeing with the revision of the SRU plan, but by the making this information available "very short notice"He explained that "the annexes and additions arrived on Friday evening"which wouldn't have given him time "to analyze everything". António Valente, from PAN, also framed the party's abstention with the arrival of the information "very high". "We need more time for analysis"he said. Jorge de Sá, from Aliança, supported Newton's statement and recalled that the SRU "it's a company with a bad track record and it can't once again become a 'I can, I want to and I'm in charge' company in the city, without being scrutinized, without being audited and without being heard by those who have the popular vote".
For the Socialists, Carla Madeira elaborated that, "as a responsible party" which "wants the remaining works in the plan to be completed", the PS was going to "enable this proposal by abstaining". The Socialists have, however "perplexity and concern" with the revision of the SRU's PAO as it represents "a decrease in social and housing facilities of around 22 million euros" and the cancellation of "very important projects"such as health centers or schools. "In total, more than 500 fires will be removed" to the original plan, said Carla Madeira.
Socialist Ricardo Marques, President of the Benfica Parish Council, said that, unlike his party, he was going to vote against it because he couldn't "in good conscience" abstain "what it means to put the investment promised to the parish 30 years ago on hold" - Ricardo was referring to the Garridas intergenerational center, a facility that would bring together the youngest and oldest in the same space, and would have a retirement home. The President of the Benfica Council said that this decision to postpone "was not discussed with the Parish Council" and that he had already expressed his displeasure to the Mayor and to Councillor Filipa Roseta, responsible for the SRU, and recalled that "a substantial part of the work" had already started, with "studies and foundations".
What happens now? Is everything suspended?
This lead means that the The review of the SRU's PAO for this year is suspended, and the PAO that was approved at the beginning of the year remains in force.. And this is where the problem lies. Both CML and the SRU know that there are works that were planned and budgeted for at the beginning of the year that cannot be carried out, but without a revision and a relocation of these funds, duly approved, the SRU cannot launch another work that is feasible instead of another that cannot be done.
In other words, as they say, "neither dad dies nor we eat lunch". The SRU will have projects that it could be advancing instead of others that are unfeasible, but it can't do so because the budget and contracts don't allow it to. This means that there are works that are included in the "original" PAO that won't happen and whose funds are still earmarked for these investments; and there are works that are in the revised PAO that can't go ahead.
Why was the SRU plan revised?
O Activities Plan and Budget (or PAOis a document that guides municipal companies in their activity in a given year - in this case, 2022 - while presenting guidelines for the following four years, which are then readjusted annually. The SRU's PAO for 2022-2026 was drawn up at the end of last year, at a time of executive change at Lisbon City Hall, continuing previous commitments; it was approved at the end of January this year, first by the CML and then by the AML.
A revision of the PAO was worked on over the next four months between the new SRU board of directors - which took office also in January, led by António Lamas - and the municipality. The proposed revision explains that "all the processes underway, contracts, projects and studies were analyzed, and working meetings were held with the Municipal Directorates" of CML."Today, above all due to the war in Ukraine, there are changes that force an additional upward revision of the estimated values, changes that in some cases have resulted in contractors giving up on works that are in the process of being awarded."the document also states.
According to the revision proposal presented (which you can read above), and according to the explanations given by Councillor Filipa Roseta, who is responsible for overseeing the SRU in AML, the revision of the SRU plan was intended to free up funds for projects that could already be carried out, since there were problems with planned contracts, either due to price rises because of the global context, or because of other issues such as problems with allotments. "The aim was to try to go ahead with all the works that were currently able to go ahead and not to have works planned that were not able to go ahead"explained Filipa Roseta.
The PSD councillor, who also has the housing portfolio, gave two examples: that of "two major SRU tenders [lots 7 and 10 of the Entrecampos Affordable Rent Program] that closed this year and were not awarded because there were no bidders" by "construction value is 30% higher than it was in the same month a year ago"; and that of the Garridas intergenerational center, whose work "was 21 million" when "initially it was planned for six million". "We had to sit down and figure out what was a priority, and make choices so that we weren't launching things that we wouldn't be able to fulfill."
The SRU review proposal was intended to "to allow the normal course of works already underway"These include the new Largo do Rio Seco, in Ajuda/Alcântara, or various health centers and schools, but also the new Largo do Rio Seco, in Ajuda/Alcântara. "launching contracts already mandated by CML for which there is a need to make adjustments to the base value". At the same time, he was putting "new lines of action identified as priorities by the new municipal executive"such as "regeneration in the city's great valleys, now fragmented territories"the Chelas, Ajuda and Santo António valleys; and earmarked funds for the "future Tejo-Trancão Park"where the main events of World Youth Day, which in 2023 will take place between Lisbon and Loures, will be held..
In the revised plan, priority was given to the redesign of Avenida Santos Drumont, between Praça de Espanha and Rêgo, Quinta do Ferro or the major urban intervention in Santa Clara (Ameixoeira), while equipment such as the Garridas Intergenerational Center or the Telheiras Health Unit, some schools and nurseries, or even the ABC ZER were put aside (but the planning for the intervention on Avenida da Liberdade, which was part of that ZER, was maintained). The changes are duly justified on the first pages of the revision.
What is the SRU anyway?
The SRU is an Urban Rehabilitation Society, i.e. a public company with the aim of facilitating the development and revitalization of cities, particularly their most degraded areas. In 2018, the SRUs became the property of the municipalities and, in Lisbon, only the SRU Lisboa Ocidental, which was created to rehabilitate the western part of the city, is still active. However, with the extinction of other SRUs and their municipalization, SRU Lisboa Ocidental has extended its territorial scope to the entire city and today is responsible for a vast majority of major public works in Lisbon, in the areas of public space, housing and health. The SRU, which is still called "SRU Lisboa Ocidental"has become the municipal public works company par excellence.
It is the SRU that has rehabilitated schools, built new health centers and signed off on municipal projects in the area of affordable housing. In the field of urban planning and public space, the SRU is responsible for a number of projects under the municipal program A Square in Every Neighborhoodsuch as Largo do Rio Seco or the new Praça de Espanha. At the start of the discussion on the revision of the SRU plan in the AML, Socialist MP Maria Irene Lopes, who chairs the 1st AML Standing CommitteeHe is responsible for Finance, Assets and Human Resources, also emphasized the importance of the SRU, noting that "it's almost like a second city hall that's here, many municipalities in Portugal would like to have the budget that the SRU has to do work".
Maria Irene Lopes suggested the promotion of a thematic Assembly dedicated to the SRU, where the municipal company and the deputies could discuss the major construction projects for the city - a debate that would also be open to the population. It was up to the 1st Committee to issue an opinion on each of the two documents which, on Tuesday, were considered by the deputies in plenary. "It became quite difficult for us to do things on the run, we understand the difficulty and we believe that in the second year it won't be like that anymore"Maria Irene commented, highlighting the tight deadlines they had to work with due to the "political change" and that there was not even time to involve other AML Commissions, such as the commission that deals with Urbanism
"We think the SRU's activity should be scrutinized and we think this is the best forum to do so, given the diversity of this forum"said Filipa Roseta, responding to some of the concerns of the municipal deputies, guaranteeing that "the SRU board of directors is always available" to "see what is needed, parish by parish". He also acknowledged that the deadlines were tighter this year.
