Africa-Press – Cape verde. As it did not meet legally during this year 2022, the Municipality of São Vicente may be dissolved. This is one of the conclusions of the inspection carried out to that city council, which considers null the deliberations of the sessions convened both by the mayor Augusto Neves (MpD) and by the opposition councilors (UCID and PAICV).
The investigation of the facts related to the meetings of the Municipality of São Vicente (CMSV), carried out by the Inspection and Municipal Audit Services, of the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion, and of the General Inspection of Finance, concluded that, during the year 2022 , that city council “did not actually hold any session”.
Non-existence of sessions of the Municipal Assembly In the light of article 134 of the Municipalities Statute, this constituted a “serious illegality”, liable to lead to the dissolution of this municipal body, under the terms of the law.
The report of that inspection, to which NAÇÃO had access and which those concerned are already aware of, also considers that the inexistence of sessions of the Municipal Assembly for the appreciation of the report of activities and management accounts of the CMSV constitutes, under the aforementioned article, of the Municipalities Statute, equally, a “serious illegality”.
But in this case, this can be justified by the fact that the city council of Mindelo “has not complied” with the legal procedures of these instruments as determined by law.
That is, roughly speaking, once the anomaly is detected, these documents must be submitted to the City Council, before being considered by the Municipal Assembly. December 30 session is “irregular”
Regarding the meetings considered null, the inspection concluded that the session scheduled for December 30, 2021 was “irregular”, since the email by which councilor Albertino Graça (PAICV) was summoned was missing a letter and, “consequently , the notice sent in the e-mail did not reach its recipient”.
Regarding the ordinary session of January 2, 2022, the report begins by saying that, despite the “inconsistency” in the notice regarding the indication of the session number, as the twentieth (instead of the first), “the notice was valid, insofar as it expressly announced the day and the points to be dealt with at the meeting”.
Still in relation to that same meeting, the inspection found some situations strange, which it recognized, however, “does not constitute illegalities”, but “are anomalous” to the functioning of the City Council.
Here, at issue is the fact that this meeting was convened for a Sunday, which led some councilors to request that it be changed to the following day (Monday), or to Thursday, which is the day, according to the minutes, in which CMSV sessions are normally held.
Furthermore, in the opinion of the inspectors, the urgency to convene a session of the City Council on a Sunday was not justified, so much so that support staff, porter, recording technician, etc.
, were not even communicated to be present.
The report says that, according to the email from the municipal secretary, Elisangela Soares, she was informed by Norina Morais Santos, who secretary of the meeting, that the absence of technical support staff was due to the fact that the mayor (Augusto Neves) considered that there was no need for such communication.
However, despite the fact that this meeting had a required quorum to function, the deliberations taken at it by four of the nine members of the CMSV (in this case all of the MpD) “have no legal effect”, as “there was no deliberative quorum required”, that is, , “it would be necessary that at least five members had deliberated”.
Consequences of nullity of resolutions According to the aforementioned investigation report, the failure to hold meetings from January 27 to April 5, 2022, hampered the normal functioning of the City Council.
Because of this, no decisions considered important were taken, such as the analysis of the activities report and the approval of the management accounts for 2021. The tender proposal for the acquisition of transport equipment, goods and services and requalification works was also not analyzed or approved.
The opening of the recruitment competition and approval of the composition of the competition jury for the selection of leading technical personnel also remained to be analyzed.
The opening of a recruitment competition and approval of the competition jury for the selection of managerial technical personnel and matters related to human resources, namely the attribution of subsidies, retirements, granting and extension of leave without pay, remained to be resolved.
serious illegality The inspection team also reports that at the meeting of 19 April 2022, the president and the three councilors of the MpD left the session room before the approval of the agenda, that is, before the start of work.
Also according to the same source that cites legal precepts, the agenda for each meeting is approved by the collegiate body at the beginning of the session.
“Without approval of the agenda, there was no effective start of the meeting”, understand the inspectors.
The report clarifies, however, that the abandonment of the meeting, before the beginning of the same, by the Mayor and all three councilors of the MpD, constitutes a breach of the established in subparagraph d) of article 5 Law nº 14/IV/91 , of 30 December, which determines the duty of elected municipal representatives to participate in all ordinary and extraordinary meetings of the respective body.
“Repeated failure to comply with this duty implies the loss of mandate under the terms of subparagraph d), paragraph 1 of article 59 of the Statute of Municipalities”, says the inspection.
Also, the continuity of that meeting on April 19, 2022, by the councilors of the UCID and the PAICV, after the departure of the Mayor and the councilors of the MpD, in the opinion of the inspectors, “has no legal framework”.
In view of this, the inspectors understood that this meeting could only be considered valid if the agenda had been approved in plenary. As a result, the deliberations taken at that meeting are also considered null and void.
“In short, regarding the meetings of the Chamber, it is concluded that, during the year 2022, the Chamber did not actually hold any session which, in light of article 134 of the Statute of Municipalities, constitutes a serious illegality, capable of generating the dissolution of this municipal body, under the terms of the law”, concludes the report of the Inspection and Municipal Audit Services, of the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion, and of the General Inspectorate of Finance.
Although Solomonic in several of its aspects, the report comes, in a way, to clarify the tug of war between Augusto Neves and the councilors of the UCID and PAICV, which together hold the majority of the council.
This fact has led this mayor to understand that it is not up to him to submit to the dictates of these two political forces, given that it was he and the MpD who won – still with a relative majority – the São Vicente City Council. Deliberations must be declared null by Augusto Neves
The action team to investigate the facts related to the CMSV meetings recommends the president of that city council, Augusto Neves, to declare nullity of the deliberations taken at the meeting on January 2, 2022, with the failure to observe the deliberative quorum required by law. Likewise, it must also declare the nullity of the deliberations taken in the meetings held only with the councilors of the UCID and the PAICV.
Within a maximum period of 10 days from the date of receipt of this report, which was delivered to the CMSV on the 24th of August, Augusto Neves must provide the Inspection and Municipal Audit Service of the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion with the information that proves the implementation of the recommendations.
The inspection team appeals to the CMSV to return to normality in the holding of meetings, under the terms of the Statute of Municipalities and that the issue of the deliberations taken at the meetings held during this year be resolved, especially with regard to the approval of the report. activity and management accounts of that municipality.
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