Local authorities have still only received less than a fifth of what they would be entitled to from the PRR

Despite representing only 13% of the total allocation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), local authorities have only received around 18% of the 2.14 billion euros allocated to them, and are therefore the final beneficiaries with the lowest percentage of the envelope paid. These delays will, in some cases, prevent the completion of projects, according to the Court of Auditors (TdC), which also raises a number of concerns about information management.

The TdC report on the Execution of the PRR by Local Government released this Tuesday shows how these beneficiaries have been the ones who have faced the most delays, at a time when the PRR continues to be conditioned by the gap between the schedule and implementation. Of the 2.14 billion euros allocated to this component of the administration, only 384.1 million have been paid, that is, 17.9% of the total.

This means that local government has recorded the lowest relative implementation among the various types of beneficiaries, with the Plan having paid out 23.6% of the total amount. Given these delays, the report warns that some projects are no longer compatible with the deadlines set by the RRP, which should limit their impact.

“In several components, there are significant delays that jeopardize the completion of projects within the deadlines, in many cases, due to the lack of maturity of the approved projects”, he adds.

These investments linked to local authorities are concentrated mainly in the areas of Housing, Social Responses and Infrastructure. Of the amount approved for local government, 938 million euros were allocated to 871 housing projects, 287.9 ​​million to 1,163 'Social Responses' projects, and 237 million were allocated to 22 infrastructure projects.

The TdC also makes a series of other criticisms and recommendations, particularly with regard to information management. In terms of monitoring, “repeated failures in the provision of investment progress reports were observed, as well as failures in the management and provision of information contained in the PRR Information Management System”.

Furthermore, this Information Management System does not reflect the financial data of investments in a complete, up-to-date and accurate manner, as well as the associated public contracts, “and a 'single PRR label' has not been created to ensure its identification”, the report reads.

“For most of the cases analyzed, this System does not provide, directly or through connection to other information systems, documentation that is highly relevant to evaluation, auditing and control activities”, says the entity led by Filipa Calvão.

The Court recommends that the various entities involved improve the quality of financial information regarding the implementation of investments and regularly and timely fulfil monitoring obligations, particularly in the provision of progress reports. It also recommends that, when approving and implementing investments, the technical, financial and control capacity of local authorities, particularly parishes, should always be verified.