Mais um escândalo

Presidentes de câmara e de junta deixam de responder por despesas ilegais sempre que sigam parecer dos serviços

 

http://www.ionline.pt/conteudo/84599-lei-salazar-oe-livra-autarcas-do-tribunal-contas

Governo britânico elimina 192, funde 118 e reestrutura 171 institutos públicos

O ministro Francis Maude, chefe de gabinete do primeiro-ministro David Cameron, anunciou hoje que, a par destas modificações na estrutura do estado na eliminação destes institutos – conhecidos como ‘quangos’ no Reino Unido, organizações não-governamentais e semi-autónomas –, cerca de mil postos de trabalho serão eliminados e muitos outros serão transferidos para outros departamentos, segundo noticia o periódico britânico “The Guardian”.

 

Enquanto o BBC World Service e o British Council viram os seus estatutos intocados, alguns institutos e agências, como a Autoridade de Fertilidade e Embriologia, a Agência de Protecção da Saúde e a Autoridade de Tecidos Humanos, dentro da área da saúde, serão extintos.

 

Já a Comissão de Concorrência britânica verá as suas funções absorvidas pela Secretaria da Justiça para o Comércio, a par da Agência do Ambiente, que será substancialmente reestruturada, entre outras alterações profundas, noticia o “Guardian”.

 

Maude justificou estas reformas com a “enorme vontade de mudança” do povo britânico, assegurando que cada instituto foi analisado de modo a perceber se as suas competências eram insubstituíveis.

 

O Partido Trabalhista, pela voz de Liam Byrne, candidato-sombra ao cargo de chefe do gabinete do primeiro-ministro, alegou, por sua vez, que o Partido Conservador está “desesperado por manchetes” e questionou os “tories” sobre “se o preço de fechar os institutos seria maior do que mantê-los abertos”, referindo-se às pensões, indemnizações e retroactivos que ainda terão de ser pagos nos próximos anos, segundo o “Guardian”.

 

 

E nós? Em o Governo Português?

E em Portugal? Alguém conhece os números?

O défice espanhol vai sofrer uma redução de dez mil milhões de euros este ano, ou seja, o equivalente a 1% do PIB, graças às medidas de redução de despesa anunciadas em Abril.

 

Segundo o “El País”, este desempenho reflecte o corte dos investimentos, a diminuição de 5% dos salários dos funcionários públicos, além da diminuição de outros gastos supérfluos.

 

Assim, o défice público espanhol deverá fixar-se este ano em 54 mil milhões de euros, contra os 64 mil milhões previstos no Orçamento do Estado para 2010. Uma poupança resultante de reduções de despesa de mais de 13,6 mil milhões, que mais do que permitiu compensar a diminuição da receita de quase 3,5 mil milhões.

Meet Portugal's Boy Genius

Some coaches get their shot with a major club at a relatively tender age (in coaching years, anyway). Barcelona's Pep Guardiola was 37 when he got the gig.

And there are those who get a crack at the big time without ever having played beyond amaetur level, like Aston Villa's Gerard Houllier. There's another, smaller subset which includes those who advanced to top jobs with little or no head-coaching experience, like Real Madrid's Jose Mourinho when he took over at Benfica.

But the above examples are all rare. Rarer still is a guy like Porto boss Andre Villas Boas, who falls squarely in all three categories and, if his vertical ascent continues, could herald a change in the way clubs recruit managers.

Mr. Villas Boas's side goes for its 12th consecutive win in a competitive match on Monday night when it makes the short drive inland to take on Vitoria Guimaraes. Right now, Porto is 11 for 11 in the Portuguese League, Europa League and Portuguese SuperCup. What's more, it has shut out the opposition in all but two games. And it did it despite the departure of two stalwarts – defender Bruno Alves and midfielder Raul Meireles – over the summer.

All of this is remarkable enough until you consider that Mr. Villas Boas is just 33 years old and, prior to this season, had just 23 league games' worth of managerial experience, all of them at Academica Coimbra, the provincial club which appointed him just over a year ago. When he took charge of Academica, it was winless and dead last. By the time the season was over, Mr. Villas Boas had guided it to respectability (11th place in the 16-team league) and to the semifinal of the Portuguese League Cup.

It was enough for Porto – one of the traditional Portuguese giants – to put its eggs in Mr. Villas Boas's basket in an attempt to bounce back from a rare season which saw it finish third, only the second time since 2002 that it failed to win the league.

Mr. Villas Boas was still a teenager when he started working in Porto's scouting department way back in the mid-1990s. The club was impressed both by the breadth of his tactical understanding and his ability to produce scouting reports players could digest easily. Yet he may never have gone any further if, in early 2002, the club had not turned to Mr. Mourinho, himself an unorthodox rising star of management. Mr. Mourinho took him under his wing, making Mr. Villas Boas an integral part of his staff, both at Porto, where he won two league titles, the Champions League and the UEFA Cup and later during his successful spells at Chelsea and Inter Milan. By the time he moved to Chelsea, Mr. Villas Boas's pre-match scouting included personalized DVDs for each player, outlining their direct opponent in the next game, including strengths, weaknesses and tendencies.

Given Mr. Mourinho's reputation, it was quite the calling card, and Mr. Villas Boas openly admits that it helped him land the Academica job. But he bristles at those who consider him Luke Skywalker to Mourinho's Yoda. Or, among his detractors, Mini Me to the self-anointed "Special One's" Dr. Evil.

While Mr. Villas Boas employs the 4-3-3 formation Mr. Mourinho used to such great effect at Chelsea, it's a more fluid system, with the wingers often turning into strikers. He lacks Mr. Mourinho's charisma – that unparalleled ability to seduce players, media and fans – and comes across as less confrontational and self-assured. On the other hand, he may be more tactically sophisticated and his Porto squad attacks more than Mourinho's teams at Chelsea and Inter (the jury's still out on Real Madrid).

It's tempting to call Mr. Villas Boas soccer's answer to Theo Epstein, who rose from the San Diego Padres' public relations department to become general manager of the Boston Red Sox at age 29. Both are outsiders who brought a novel approach to understanding the sport and landed important jobs at a young age. But the crucial difference is that Mr. Villas Boas's role is far more hands-on, running training sessions and making all the game-day decisions.

He's an interloper in the inner sanctum, having never played the game at any significant level. And while he's not the first to do so, those who came before him, like Mr. Houllier, served long apprenticeships working their way up through the lower leagues.

Mr. Villas Boas's appointment obviously owes a lot to his mentor. But it's also a bold move, a striking departure from the groupthink and conventional wisdom so prevalent in soccer. You'll know whether it worked the day you read a profile of Mr. Villas Boas that does not mention Mr. Mourinho.

Citação da semana

“Why chop at leaves, when one must dig at roots”

Karim Vaes.