WASHINGTON, December 3, 2015 - More than 2 million people living in the Municipality of Manaus, capital of the Brazilian State of Amazonas, will benefit from a US$ 150 million program approved today by the World Bank Board of Directors. The Service Delivery and Fiscal Management Development Policy Loan (DPL) will support the government’s efforts to modernize its public sector management in order to improve service delivery with a focus on spending efficiency, improved education and better urban transport.
The program is the result of a partnership that started in 2014 between the State of Amazonas and the World Bank, with the Modernizing Public Sector Management, Citizen Security and Gender Policies DPL. Now, the municipal administration will benefit from the knowledge gained in this partnership, through a technical cooperation agreement between the State and the Municipality.
“The World Bank support has been crucial for the modernization of our management practices,” said the Mayor of Manaus, Arthur Virgílio Neto. “With this new program, we will be able to gradually expand the reforms to other sectors in order to upgrade public services delivery in key areas such as education, transport and other urban areas.”
Despite having a higher average income than other parts of Brazil, due to the city’s strong industrial cluster (the Manaus Free Trade Zone), Manaus faces important socio-economic challenges. The city concentrates one quarter of the State’s extreme poor and 48 percent of the population in vulnerable conditions.
Since 2013, the Municipal Secretariat of Finance started to introduce modern management tools in the public administration. A new secretariat for management for results was created and a number of measures were taken to increase revenue collection and cut unnecessary expenditures.
“We are very happy to be engaged in this new program that will allow the Manaus Municipality to also move forward and improve the quality of public services”, said the World Bank Director for Brazil, Martin Raiser. “This program will consolidate all the reforms that this administration has been so committedly carrying out and will bring advances in the quality of key public services such as education and public transport.”
Among the outcomes supported by the project are:
- Increased own-revenue collection and higher savings and transparency in procurement procedures with the establishment of the “Compras Manaus” procurement system.
- Introduction of routine audits of the payroll and personal expenditures.
- In the educational system, implementation of meritocratic selection of school directors, establishment of school-level targets and the creation of minimum standards for school staffing.
- Enhanced and upgraded bus service coordination and effectiveness of services rendered by the bus companies.
This one tranche loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) to the Municipality of Manaus is guaranteed by the Federative Republic of Brazil and has a final maturity of 24 years, with a 5 years grace period.
For more information, please visit: www.worldbank.org/br
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