Yesterday, the Council of Government approved a decree regulating the management and operation of the Fund for the Development of Azorean Parishes.
This regulation is part of the new legal framework for technical and financial cooperation between the autonomous regional administration and the regional parishes and parish associations.
One of the objectives of the new regime is to “promote decentralization, through cooperation between the regional administration and the parishes of the Azores, in a greater number of areas of competence and the sharing of financial investment resources available in the regional budget, in order to provide better and faster responses to the needs of the population.”
The government then determined the amounts of the Fund for the Development of the Parishes of the Azores allocated to each of the technical and financial cooperation modalities for 2024.
For cooperation agreements to carry out investments or other public expenditures within the scope of the parishes’ powers, the amount is 850,000 euros. For cooperation agreements to carry out investments or other public spending within the scope of the powers of the autonomous regional administration, the amount is set at one million euros. 150,000 thousand euros will be made available for coordination agreements to carry out investments or other public expenditures that jointly respect the competencies of the autonomous regional administration and the parishes.

950,000 euros for the University of the Azores

The Council of the Government approved a resolution authorizing the signing of a 950,000-euro program contract between the Region and the University of the Azores to cover the costs resulting from its organization, operation, and three-year development in 2024.
The government explains that this resolution “aims to reinforce investment and the strategic development of activities that fall within its area of competence, namely teaching, research, and scientific dissemination.”

9 million euros to license Microsoft

A resolution was also approved authorizing the expenditure and taking the decision to contract the acquisition of Microsoft licensing for the Government of the Azores through a public bid with advertising in the Official Journal of the European Union. The base price is nine million euros plus VAT at the legal rate in force, and the execution deadline is 30 September 2027.
The decision is justified by the “need” to acquire licenses that promote software compliance with the computer park installed in the Government of the Azores. There is also a wide range of new licensing needs, namely for the equipment, servers, and solutions implemented in the Azores Cloud data centers and for the productivity solutions made available to users in terms of cybersecurity and computer security.
In addition, there are “the demands” of maintaining, evolving, and consolidating the technological platform currently in operation in the Regional Public Administration, which “would be difficult to ensure if there were no conditions of access to specialized services from the manufacturer Microsoft.”
Also approved was a resolution authorizing the estimated expenditure of 1,500 euros by the Regional Secretariat for Finance, Planning, and Public Administration to sign a contract for the acquisition of services for the implementation of a new technological solution for an Integrated Information Management System for the Government of the Azores, through a pre-contractual procedure of Prior Consultation.
Another approved resolution authorizes the signing of a program contract between the Autonomous Region of the Azores and the company Ilhas de Valor, S.A., for the year 2024, for a total amount of 3,090,000 euros.

Definition of fuel oil prices for EDA

In the meantime, a resolution has been approved that, as of February 1, 2025, the maximum retail price of fuel oil for electricity production will be the market price resulting from the public tender conducted by EDA—Eletricidade dos Açores, S.A.
The government instructed the Regional Secretary for Finance, Planning, and Public Administration and the Regional Secretary for Tourism, Mobility, and Infrastructures to set up a working group to “standardize the formulas for calculating the maximum price of the public procurement procedure in question and the legal regime for maximum retail prices, as well as any other changes deemed necessary to revise the formulas for calculating maximum fuel prices in force.”

New Administration at ERSARA

The Council of the Government of the Azores approved a resolution appointing Sandra Paula de Aguiar e Câmara as chairwoman of the Board of Directors of ERSARA – the Regulatory Authority for Water and Waste Services in the Azores.
Ricardo Manuel Barroso Rodrigues and Nuno Alberto Rosas Pereira are also members of the Board of Directors.
This change in ERSARA’s Board of Directors was due to the appointment of the previous president, Sónia Silva Santos, as Director of the Environmental Planning and Promotion Office.
The government explains that, within this framework, it was “necessary to ensure that ERSARA’s Board of Directors has full administrative powers to pursue the essential activity of that regulatory body.”
A resolution was also approved, establishing the procedure for reviewing and amending the Region’s Natura 2000 Network Sector Plan. The Plan must be revised within two years of the Government Council resolution’s entry into force.

Public interest revoked a call center project that created 98 jobs.

The Council of Government revoked the recognition, as a Project of Regional Interest, of the project “Rook – Centro de Chamadas, TI e Processamento de Dados,” promoted by the company ‘Rook Technology, Lda.’. This project, which consisted of setting up a company providing call center services, programming, and data management and processing, envisaged, in the application submitted, a total investment of around one million euros and the creation of 98 jobs. However, by the time the project was closed, only 580,875.08 euros had been invested, and only 35 jobs had been created.
On the other hand, a resolution was approved that grants support to private and cooperative educational establishments teaching 2nd Cycle, 3rd Cycle, and Secondary Education for the purchase of digital textbooks. The amount set as the overall budget ceiling for the financial support to be granted is 350,000 euros, with co-funding from the Recovery and Resilience Plan.
The Government Council approved a resolution authorizing the expenditure and contracting of the acquisition of supervision services for the Design and Construction of a Modular Support Building for the Divino Espírito Santo Hospital (HDES) in Ponta Delgada and the acquisition of project review services for the contract for the Design and Construction of a Modular Support Building for the HDES, both through a direct award procedure, with a base price of 30,000 euros and 35,000 euros respectively, plus VAT at the legal rate in force, with a maximum execution period of 120 days.

in Correio dos Açores, Natalino Viveiros, director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.