According to Observador, the Ministry of Youth and Modernization of Margarida Balseiro Lopes chose Sofia Mota, until now director of TicAPP - Public Administration Digital Competence Center, to lead AMA, taking office today.

According to Observador, the origin of the dismissal of João Dias - who has already admitted to contesting the decision - and Elsa Castro, member, is, among other complaints, the "failure to meet 70% of the targets and intermediate milestones provided for in the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) for 2023, in particular, in the opening of new Citizen's Shops and Spaces, with potential impact on the disbursement targets planned for 2026".

The Government justifies that the AMA Board of Directors was also responsible for the "failure to comply with other activities provided for in the 2023 Activity Plan (which would be higher than that verified if the previous guardianship already in management had not approved changes to several indicators at the end of the year of 2023)".

The Executive also justifies, according to Observador, with the "harmful human resources management that led to the departure of almost 80 AMA workers, some in management positions with a direct impact on the organization" and "the lack of articulation with the guardianship for interventions of a public nature and institutional representation".

The "disarticulation regarding the launch and implementation of the National Strategy for Intelligent Territories, which has generated contestation about the lack of involvement of municipalities and the centralized way in which it is being thought of being operationalized by AMA", is another of the reasons pointed out by the Government.

Contacted by Diário de Notícias, the Ministry of Youth and Modernization said that "during the term of this Board of Directors, several commitments and responsibilities critical to AMA's operation were not fulfilled", and it became "necessary to print a new management orientation, so the order to dissolve the Board of Directors was signed today [Wednesday]".

In turn, in statements to the newspaper Eco, João Dias admitted to contesting the dismissal he was the target of in court.

"I am considering taking all necessary measures to defend my honor and my good name as a public manager, including resorting to legal action," the manager told ECO.

João Dias said he was "surprised by the minister's behavior", considering that "the AMA Board of Directors only had two meetings with the minister, each lasting five minutes".

"Since this Government took office, I had a meeting with the minister for less than five minutes who said that she would make a large request for information, within a certain period. We delivered the requested request on time and had no further contact. In the meantime, the minister scheduled a meeting at the Council of Ministers, which took place this Tuesday, at 7 pm, and which also only lasted five minutes, in which the minister announced the dismissal of the AMA board of directors", he said.

Regarding the arguments raised by the minister to justify the dismissal, João Dias said that the government official has a "not very rigorous view of the information" and "has never raised doubts or asked AMA for explanations".

"There was never an opportunity for contradiction, there was never an opportunity to explain that some PRR targets were carried over from 2022 to 2023, that the citizen's shops did not advance as planned, because the local authorities launched tenders for the contracts that were deserted and that, in certain areas, we acted as intermediaries and that, for this reason, the execution of certain programs depended on other bodies and other ministries", he explained.

João Dias took office in January 2023 for a five-year term, which would end in 2028.

Read Also: Government dismisses AMA management. "Several commitments not fulfilled" (Portuguese version)