With the idea of a federalist and decentralizing management, the mayors of Apolinario Saravia, Marcelo Moisés, and of El Carril, Efraín Orosco, are preparing to take over the leadership of the Forum of Mayors of the Province of Salta (Fipsa) on July 12.
Both, as president and vice respectively, are at the head of the Unity List, which achieved the consensus of the majority of Salta community leaders to head the forum for the next two years.
In contact with The TribuneMoisés and Orosco highlighted the efforts of the municipalities to maintain the status of accounts and jobs in the communes, despite the situation of crisis and economic cuts.
“There are no highly indebted municipalities” they said and advanced some aspects of the next administration, where decentralization will be the objective, in an attempt to avoid state bureaucracy and expedite solutions for the demands of the people in the interior of the province.
“The neighbors need to solve their health, education and security problems and we cannot tell them that we do not handle these issues. We have the obligation to bring a solution to the people and that is why we propose an idea of decentralizing aspects of management to bring immediate responses” said Moisés.
After the assembly on July 12, Daniel Moreno, from Vaqueros, will cease to be the president of the Forum, after two consecutive terms.
He gave as an example the maintenance of school buildings or the Police fleet or ambulances that could be left to the municipalities to avoid bureaucratic procedures in the capital of Salta. They also pointed out that minimal budgets would be needed for great benefits, with immediate solutions. “It cannot be that the neighbors are left for months without a patrol car or an ambulance, because the mobile workers had to manage a spare part or the repair of a tire in Salta capital” they warned. In this sense, they announced that there are advanced efforts with the Ministers of Economy and Infrastructure to implement a pilot plan with 15 municipalities where a decentralization program of primary activities in terms of security, health and education would be applied.
The communal leaders referred, among other aspects, to the reality of the municipalities and the need to develop “a productive identity” for each commune. Orosco highlighted that in the case of El Carril, this idea is supported by tobacco activity and gastronomy.
“We worked in the Forum and despite the context, Daniel Moreno’s management was positive. We are going to continue in that line” said Moisés and Orosco.
“These are not minor aspects if we take into account that the crisis led us to optimize resources to the maximum and seek the development of all activities,” he expressed.
On the point, Moisés made a comparison of the pandemic with the current economic crisis and was clearly optimistic. “In economic terms, the pandemic was more difficult. The drop in the economy was tremendous, 10 percent and in this crisis it is estimated that it will be 6 percent, but the truth is that the rules of the game for politics and “These crises have given us the gymnastics to the mayors so that we have new administration strategies and move forward, always with the help of the provincial government,” he expressed.
Following the agreements for a unified list, the assembly on July 12 will open a new cycle within Fipsa for the next two years with the integration of a board of directors made up of mayors from all departments of the province of Salta, something that was highlighted by Moisés and Orosco.
Two arguments about the plan
“The mayor is responsible for everything; education, health and security, and we have to work in the province to see how we can decentralize all of this,” said Moisés.
“People do not walk around with the Constitution under their arms to know if the problem is with the municipality or the province. In the aspects of health, security and education we have direct dealings with the competent authorities, we are links and we do not disagree,” said Orosco. .
Correct, fair and equitable municipalities in the new vision
Moisés and Orosco proposed three aspects related to municipal administration as management axes. “Today, society directly demands that mayors not spend more than necessary and for that we want to promote administratively correct, socially fair and federally equitable municipalities. These will be the three axes of management,” Moisés said.
In this sense they insisted on working against bureaucracy. In terms of resources to achieve this objective, they warned that in the primary activities of security, education or health, the resources are the same. “We spend them or the Province spends them; the question is to optimize management and it is something that we have been talking about with Ministers Camacho and Dib Ashur. We have to be more expeditious to give answers to the people,” they stated.
“We are willing to work on this aspect, but we need a little more resources. We cannot afford large investments with our own resources, but we can speed up the solutions for what the residents are asking us for,” they said.
The communal leaders also placed emphasis on local economies and the development of the productive matrix in each municipality. “There is a lifestyle in each town and local economies move to the rhythm of gastronomy or tourism. Many people live off of that and make their children study and that is not a minor fact.”
“But we are thinking of working with technical teams to give each of the municipalities a productive identity, to understand their strengths, to carry out an analysis and to apply actions aimed at that growth,” said Moisés.
The municipal leaders also referred to the Güemes pact promoted by Governor Sáenz. “If there is one thing that this pact has shown us, it is that poverty affects all municipalities and the lack of infrastructure is concrete proof of this,” said Moisés.
“The lack of infrastructure affects us all and we have to defend it at a national level and that is part of the discussions we have been having within the Forum,” he said.
The meeting of the mayors with Governor Sáenz after the Güemes pact.
Finally, the communal leaders referred to the political issue and pointed out the critical view of public opinion after the national elections. “Why is there only one list in the Forum? We don’t have time to politick. We mayors join forces and get together to work. It’s part of what society asks for. People no longer want fights, insults or false complaints. There are “We have to get to work efficiently and that’s what we’re doing.”
All municipalities
The steering committee that will take over the Forum has the participation of the majority of the municipalities. Apolinario Saravia will be the president; in the vice presidency, El Carril and La Viña; in the Minutes Secretariat, Güemes; in the prosecretariat, San Carlos; in the Treasury, El Galpón; Hipólito Yrigoyen will be the protector and in the Tartagal, Mosconi, El Tala, Tolar, San Lorenzo, Metán, El Bord, Animaná, Molinos, Rosario de la Frontera vowels. “We are with the 60 mayors on this federal list and with that direction of being representative and in permanent dialogue with the Government,” they indicated.
