Francisco Tavares dismantles accusations about PCFR and integration of employees and accuses the current President of CMB of failing to tell the truth

Facing the accusations, Francisco Tavares not only answered the questions posed, but also presented a wide range of legal, administrative and political clarifications, accusing the current Mayor of CMB of a "lack of truth" and a "gross lie".

When asked if the Brava City Council, which he led at the time, had received specific funds for the implementation of the PCFR in 2024, Francisco Tavares was categorical:

"Anyone who has the slightest knowledge of the law should know that this statement doesn't even make sense."

According to the former President, there is not, nor has there ever been, in Cape Verdean legislation, any money specifically allocated to the implementation of the PCFR. The financing of municipal operations, he explained, depends essentially on the Municipal Financing Fund (FFM), the increase or freezing of which results exclusively from the evolution of national revenues and the growth - or otherwise - of the economy.

Francisco Tavares stresses that the PCFR is nationwide legislation, so it would be illegal and discriminatory for the government to fund some municipalities and not others.

"The increase in the FFM has nothing to do with the funding of any project, program or legislation, in this case the PCFR."

To reinforce his argument, he presented comparative data: between 2023 and 2024, Brava saw an increase in the FFM of around 931 contos per month, while other municipalities, such as Santa Catarina do Fogo and Santa Catarina de Santiago, then governed by the MpD, saw no increase, despite the fact that the PCFR was also applicable in those municipalities.

Contrary to the claim that the previous team "did nothing" about the PCFR, Francisco Tavares guarantees that the CMB's Human Resources services left the technical work advanced.

"I can prove that the provisional list table exists and was sent to some ministries for an initial assessment and opinion in August 2024."

According to the former President, this fact dismantles the narrative of inaction and demands, at the very least, a public retraction from the current Mayor.

Francisco Tavares also explained the objective reasons why the PCFR was not implemented during his mandate. The diploma was published in the Official Bulletin on January 24, 2024, while the Municipal Budget for that year was drawn up and approved in the last quarter of 2023.

"It's basic for any municipal manager: you can't budget an expense based on a law that didn't exist yet."

In addition, his team was only in office for nine months after the PCFR was made official, a period that coincided with the October 2024 municipal election cycle. The current president, on the other hand, has been in office for the whole of 2025, with work already underway, and has still not fully implemented the PCFR.

On the second question - whether the employee Francisca Isabel Mascarenhas Gomes was only hired by the CMB in 2018 because she previously worked in a private garden - Francisco Tavares was equally clear.

He explained that all the monitors and cooks at the Padre Pio Children's Garden were integrated into the City Council in 2018, as part of the implementation of the then PCCS, as a matter of social and legal justice.

"Only then did they have a contract, be registered with the INPS and receive the minimum wage of 15,000 escudos. Before, they earned 10,000 escudos and were not registered with the INPS."

The former President rejects the idea that the Padre Pio Kindergarten is a private entity, pointing out that the preparatory cycle had already operated in that building.

"The Padre Pio Kindergarten is not private. So when the Preparatory Cycle was there, was it private? No."

For Francisco Tavares, it would be as illegal to integrate these employees as it would be illegal not to integrate all the other monitors and cooks who worked in the island's kindergartens whose buildings belong to the CMB.

The former President also presented data on the evolution of the FFM in order to dismantle the self-praise of the current leadership:

• 2023 → 2024: +931 contos mensais (MpD in CMB)
  
  

• 2024 → 2025: +1,166 escudos per month (PAICV in CMB)
  

• 2025 → 2026: +1,370 escudos per month (PAICV in CMB)
  

In this context, he considered it "pathetic" for the current President to boast about the partial implementation of the PCFR with some officials, a year after taking office and benefiting from significant increases in the FFM.

Francisco Tavares claims that, in the interests of fairness to the Brava City Council workers, his team prepared a package of measures to come into force in January 2025, which included:

• Implementation of the minimum wage of 19,000 escudos;
  

• Implementation of the PCFR for all employees;
  

• Regularization of the few precarious contracts that exist.
  

Finally, the former President harshly criticized what he considers to be inconsistency between the discourse and practice of the current leadership, pointing to concrete cases of human resources management.

He denounced, for example, the removal of a CMB employee, with more than 20 years of career and training in the social area, to work as a librarian, while a young man with no training in the area would have been put to work in the municipality's social action.

"Talking pretty on the front and doing things differently on the back is nothing new."

Francisco Tavares concludes that the narrative constructed by the current leadership does not stand up to analysis of the facts, the law and the figures, reaffirming that his administration has acted with responsibility, planning and a sense of social justice.