Customer Focus Newsleter, November-December, 2007, Vol. 4, no. 6

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.

Cost system design and cost management in the Spanish public sector

Cost systems have been shown to have developed considerably in recent years andactivity-based costing (ABC) has been shown to be a contribution to cost management,particularly in service businesses. The public sector is composed to a very great extentof service functions, yet considerably less has been reported of the use of ABC tosupport cost management in this sector.In Spain, cost systems are essential for city councils as they are obliged to calculate thecost of the services subject to taxation (eg. waste collection, etc). City councils musthave a cost system in place to calculate the cost of services, as they are legally requirednot to profit , from these services.This paper examines the development of systems to support cost management in theSpanish Public Sector. Through semi-structured interviews with 28 subjects within oneCity Council it contains a case study of cost management. The paper contains extractsfrom interviews and a number of factors are identified which contribute to thesuccessful development of the cost management system.Following the case study a number of other City Councils were identified where activity-based techniques had either failed or stalled. Based on the factors identified inthe single case study a further enquiry is reported. The paper includes a summary usingstatistical analysis which draws attention to change management, funding and politicalincentives as factors which had an influence on system success or failure.

Customer Focus Newsleter, January/February, 2008, Vol. 5, no. 1

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.

Customer Focus Newsletter, March/April, 2008, Vol. 5, no. 2

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.

Active civic participation of immigrants in Portugal

Portugal’s historical past strongly influences the composition of the country’s immigrant population. The main third-country foreign nationals in Portugal originate traditionally from Portuguese-speaking African countries (namely Cape Verde, Angola, Guinea Bissau, and S. Tomé e Príncipe) and Brazil. In 2001, a newly created immigrant status entitled “permanence” authorization uncovered a quantitative and a qualitative change in the structure of immigrant population in Portugal. First, there was a quantitative jump from 223.602 foreigners in 2001 to 364.203 regularized foreigners in 2003. Secondly, there was a substantial qualitative shift in the composition of immigrants. The majority of the new immigrants began coming from Eastern European countries, such as Ukraine, Moldavia, Romania, and the Russian Federation. Thus, European countries outside the E.U. zone now rank second (after African countries) in their contribution of individuals to the stocks of immigrant population in Portugal. The differences between the new and traditional immigration flows are visible in the geographical distribution of immigrants and in their insertion into the labour market. While the traditional flows would congregate around the metropolitan area of Lisbon and in the Algarve, the new migratory flows tend to be more geographically dispersed and present in less urbanized areas of Portugal. In terms of insertion in the labour market, although the construction sector is still the most important industry for immigrant labour, Eastern European workers may also be found in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors. The institutional conditions that encourage immigrants’ civic participation are divided at three different levels: the state, the local, and the civil society levels. At the state level, the High Commissioner for Migrations and Ethnic Minorities is the main organizational structure along with a set of interrelated initiatives operating under specific regulatory frameworks, which act as mediators between state officials and the Portuguese civil society, and more specifically, immigrant communities. At the local level, some municipalities created consultative councils and municipal departments aiming at encouraging the participation and representation of interests from immigrant groups and association in local policies. In the civil society sphere, the main actors in Portugal spurring immigrants civic participation are immigrant associations, mainstream associations directed toward immigration topics, and unions. The legal conditions framing immigrants’ access to social housing, education, health, and social security in Portugal are also considered to be positive. Conditions restricting immigrants’ civic participation are mainly normative and include the Portuguese nationality law, the regulations shaping the political participation of immigrants, namely in what concerns their right to vote, and employment regulations restricting immigrants’ access to public administration positions. Part II of the report focuses on the active civic participation of third country immigrants. First, reasons for the lack of research on this issue in Portugal are explained. On the one hand, the recent immigration history and the more urgent needs regarding school and economic integration kept this issue out of the research spotlight. On the other hand, it was just in the beginning of the 1990s that immigrants took the very first steps toward collective mobilisation. Secondly, the literature review of Portuguese bibliography covers research on third country immigrants’ associative movement, research on local authorities’ policies and discussion about ethnic politics and political mobilisation of immigrants in Portugal. As political mobilisation of these groups has been made mainly through ethnic and/or migrant organisations, a brief history of immigrants' associative movement is given. Immigrant associations develop multiple roles, covering the social, the cultural, the economic and the political domains. Political claiming for the regularisation of illegal immigrants has been a permanent and important field of intervention since the mid-1990s. Research results reveal the com5 plex relations between ethnic mobilisation and the set of legal and institutional frameworks developed by local and national governmental authorities targeted to the incorporation of minority groups. Case studies on the Oeiras district and on the Amadora district are then presented. Conclusions underline that the most active immigrant groups are those from Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau, since these groups have constituted a higher number of ethnic associations, give priority to political claiming and present a more politicised discourse. Reflecting on the future of research on civic participation of third country immigrants in Portugal, the authors state that it would be interesting and relevant to compare the Portuguese situation with those of other European countries, with an older immigration history, and analyse how the Portuguese immigrants’ associative movement will be affected by a changing legal framework and the emergence of new opportunities within the set of structures regarding the political participation of minority groups.

Customer Focus Newsletter, July/August, 2008, Vol. 5, no. 4

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.

Customer Focus Newsletter, May/June, 2008, Vol. 5, no. 3

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.

Customer Focus Newsletter, September/October, 2008, Vol. 5, no. 5

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.

Os Problemas Ambientais em Cabo Verde - Políticas e Medidas de Protecção Ambiental

A presente dissertação teve como finalidade analisar os Problemas Ambientais em Cabo Verde, com destaque para as políticas e medidas implementadas no período que decorre de 1975 a 2010. Para tal, centrou-se no confronto de resultados de estudos que permitiram uma comparação entre os Concelhos da Praia e de São Salvador do Mundo, localizados no sul e no centro da ilha de Santiago, respectivamente. Como ponto de partida, fez-se uma caracterização climática/ambiental do país, salientando a sua fragilidade ambiental através de uma estreita ligação entre as suas características naturais e o estado de ambiente para delinear a evolução das medidas políticas e jurídicas tomadas no sentido de combater ou minimizar os problemas existentes. Todo o trabalho empírico foi realizado nos concelhos acima referidos, com base nos inquéritos efectuados junto dos moradores, escolas, técnicos e políticos que lidam com a problemática ambiental nesses Concelhos. Posteriormente, foi possível analisar profundamente as principais causas da degradação ambiental nos dois Concelhos como a pobreza, a escassez de água, o saneamento básico, o aumento da população, o êxodo rural e as construções clandestinas, estabelecendo uma correlação entre estas e o desenvolvimento económico-social e a qualidade de vida dos seus habitantes. Finalmente, expôs-se o trabalho realizado e o que se perspectiva fazer para sua mitigação, privilegiando a vertente pedagógica, destacando a importância do envolvimento de grupos comunitários para prossecução de acções diversificadas de sensibilização, de programação e da formação em paralelo com o reforço de fiscalização para melhor aplicação de normas existentes.

Customer Focus Newsletter, November-December, 2008, Vol. 5, no.

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.

Customer Focus Newsletter, January-February, 2009, Vol. 6, no.1

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.

Informe sobre la situación de los recursos pelagicos a principios de 1981 y las proyecciones de pesca

Analiza las recomendaciones del despacho ministerial sobre la administración de los recursos como la sardina.

Desmontemos rumores para fomentar la convivencia

Este artículo describe y analiza desde una perspectiva crítica el proyecto “Desmontemos rumores para fomentar la convivencia”, desarrollado en los últimos años en Sant Boi de Llobregat como parte del “Programa de convivencia”, impulsado por la Unidad de Educación Comunitaria y Civismo del ayuntamiento local. Se pone especial énfasis en las actividades realizadas en el marco de la Red de educadores y alumnos por la convivencia, que ha sido una pieza clave para impulsar el proyecto entre los adolescentes y los jóvenes de la ciudad.

2008 Annual Report Capitol Planning Commission, January 2009

The Capitol Planning Commission is authorized under Chapter 8A.371—378 of the Code of Iowa. “It shall be the duty of the commission to advise upon the location of statues, fountains and monuments and the placing of any additional buildings on the capitol grounds, the type of architecture and the type of construction of any new buildings to be erected on the state capitol grounds as now encompassed or as subsequently enlarged, and repairs and restoration thereof, and it shall be the duty of the officers, commissions, and councils charged by law with the duty of determining such questions to call upon the commission for such advice. “The commission shall, in cooperation with the director of the department of administrative services, develop and implement within the limits of its appropriation, a five-year modernization program for the capitol complex. “The commission shall annually report to the general assembly its recommendations relating to its duties under this section. The report shall be submitted to the chief clerk of the house and the secretary of the senate during the month of January.” —Code of Iowa, Chapter 8A.373

Customer Focus Newsletter, May-June, 2009, Vol. 6, no.3

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.