According to the Financial Yearbook of Municipalities, Câmara de Lagoa, in the district of Faro, obtained the second best score, for the second consecutive year, in the 'ranking' of medium-sized municipalities with the best financial efficiency in 2023 , with 1,543 points.

The Câmara de Tavira, which in 2022 was classified as the most financially efficient municipality, obtained the third best score for last year (1,470), in a ranking led in 2023 by the Câmara de Abrantes, in the district of Santarém (1,676) .

Speaking to Lusa agency, the mayor of Lagoa, Luís Encarnação, said that “it is no surprise”, because, he said, “it is already common practice” for the municipality to rank among the top municipalities.

“We are not at all surprised, because it follows the work done and demonstrates the care we take with public accounts and the way we manage the municipality”, he noted.

According to Luís Encarnação, “this assessment by the official accounts technicians only proves and validates the work and the cautious and judicious management approach”.

The mayor said that the management of accounts “has not prevented priority and essential investments from being made for the development of the municipality in various areas, but rather the way and rigor in which these investments” are made.

“We have several projects in progress and we are going to launch others because the financial balance allows us to move forward with priority projects for the future and gain maturity in our applications to the Recovery and Resilience Plan [PRR]”, he concluded.

Tavira

In turn, the mayor of Tavira, Ana Paula Martins, told Lusa that she “still does not know the reasons” that determined the drop from first to third place in the ranking.

“I haven't had the opportunity to read the document yet, but finding ourselves among the top five municipalities means that we are in excellent financial conditions, which has been happening in recent years”.

Ana Paula Martins added that the Tavira Council has maintained regular financial health, which is “the result of rigorous administrative work in municipal management, without conditioning the necessary investments”.

“The rigor of management and the correct accounts and financial stability allow us to move forward with large essential investments, such as health and housing, a problem that is transversal to the municipalities of the Algarve”, she concluded.

The 'rankings' in the Financial Yearbook were prepared based on the scores obtained by municipalities in 10 indicators, for a maximum of 1,900 points, relating to financial efficiency and effectiveness, such as liquidity, the weight of liabilities required in assets, liabilities per inhabitant and direct taxes per inhabitant.

In 2023, Câmara de Sintra, in the district of Lisbon, obtained the best classification of the large municipalities, with 1,675 points, followed by Maia (1,592), district of Porto, and Santa Maria da Feira (1,583), in the district of Aveiro .

The list of small municipalities with the best results in the global indexes is led by Grândola (1,687), in Setúbal, Santana (1,622), in Madeira, and Óbidos (1,594), in Leiria.