Local Self-Government in Armenia
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FOA LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT IN ARMENIA (2018) Book 11 Edited by Vahram Shahbazyan, Ph.D. Technical Sciences Yerevan 2019 Contents LIST OF ACRONYMS ................................................................................................ 148 LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................... 149 LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................... 151 PREFACE .............................................................................................................. 152 1. LEGAL AND PROGRAMMATIC ASSESSMENT OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT REFORMS............................................................................... 156 1.1. Legal Assessment of Local Self-government Reforms ................................................... 156 1.2. Programmatic Assessment of Local Self-government Reforms ...................................... 160 1.3. Performance of Armenia’s International Commitments in Local Self-government ............ 162 2. ADMINISTRATIVE-TERRITORIAL DIVISION AND INTER-MUNICIPAL COOPERATION .... 163 2.1. Administrative-territorial division.......... ...................................................................... 164 2.2. Inter-municipal cooperation ............................................................................. 169 3. FORMATION, POWERS AND ACTIVITIES OF LSGBS, PARTICIPATION OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN LOCAL GOVERNANCE ........................................................................... 172 3.1. Formation, powers and activities of LSGBs .................................................................. 172 3.2. Participation of civil society in local governance .................................................... 177 4. MUNICIPAL ASSETS, DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS AND FINANCIAL AUTONOMY.......... 179 4.1. Municipal Assets ....................................................................................................... 179 4.2. Municipal development plans and budgeting processes ................................................ 181 4.3. Municipal budget revenues ....................................................................................... 183 4.4. Debt management ......................................................................................... 189 4.5. Financial Accountability ................................................................................... 189 5. RELEVANCE OF LSG RESPONSIBILITIES AND MUNICIPAL FINANCES ........................ 191 6. ADEQUACY OF ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURES, HUMAN AND INFORMATION 205 RESOURCES TO MUNICIPAL ISSUES, INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE ............................ 6.1.General capacities of LSGBs and municipal staff..................................................... 205 6.2. Municipal service .......................................................................................... 210 6.3. Training of municipal servants .......................................................................... 214 6.4. International assistance ................................................................................... 217 7. DELIVERY OF PUBLIC SERVICES ........................................................................... 222 7.1. Public services delivered by municipalities ........................................................... 222 7.2. Management of municipal services .................................................................... 237 8. RESULTS OF THE LOCAL GOVERNANCE ANNUAL ASSESSMENT (LG INDEX FOR 2016, 2017 AND 2018) ....................................................................... 239 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................. 244 Conclusions ............................................................................................................. 244 Recommendations .................................................................................................... 249 Bibliography ............................................................................................................ 252 Appendices .............................................................................................................. 257 147 LIST OF ACRONYMS AWP Annual work plan CAA Communities Association of Armenia CFOA Communities Finance Officers Association CoE Council of Europe CO Citizen office ECLSG European Charter of Local Self-Government EU European Union FYMDP Five-year municipal development plan GDP Gross domestic product IMU Inter-municipal union ISDTC Information Systems Development and Training Center LSG Local Self-government LSGBs Local self-government bodies LTD Limited liability company MMIS Municipal management information systems MNCO Municipal non-commercial organization MTAD Ministry of Territorial Administration and Development NA National Assembly OGP Open Government Partnership RA Republic of Armenia SME Small and medium enterprises USA United States of America USAID United States Agency for International Development 148 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Distribution of RA land stock by land ownership types as of July 1, 2018..... 163 Table 2. Administrative-territorial division and population of Armenia (as of January 1, 2019) ............................................................................... 165 Table 3. Changes of RA administrative-territorial division from 2015 to 2019.......... 166 Table 4. Administrative-territorial reforms by stages as of January 1, 2019 ............. 167 Table 5. Brief information on the database of property tax and land tax as of March 1, 2019 ..................... ..................................................... 171 Table 6. Number of elections of LSGBs in 2018, by marzes ................................. 172 Table 7. Political affiliation of directly elected mayors in 2018 ............................. 173 Table 8. Quantitative data of mayor’s powers by individual types and sectors (as of December 31, 2018)................................................................................. 176 Table 9. Municipal expenditures on non-financial assets (including Yerevan), 2016-2018 ..................................................................... 180 Table 10. Receipts on sales of non-financial assets of municipalities (including Yerevan), 2016 – 2018 (in mln. AMD) .............................................. 181 Table 11. The number of subvention projects co-financed from the RA state budget during 2018 and the allocated amounts to those projects as per marzes ........... 182 Table 12. Types of the RA municipal budget revenues and their shares in total revenues, 2016-2018 .................................................................................... 184 Table 13. Share of Yerevan budget revenues in total revenues of the RA municipal budgets in 2018 ......................................................................................... 185 Table 14. Official grants as revenues of municipal budgets in 2016-2018................ 187 Table 15. Fund budget revenues of the RA municipalities and the share of Yerevan fund budget revenues in 2018 ....................................................................... 188 Table 16. Brief table on publicity and transparency of the RA municipal budgets for the 4th quarter, 2018 ................................................................................... 190 Table 17. Shares of local budget expenditures in total public spending and GDP (2018 data) in Armenia and Member States of the European Union ................. 191 Table 18. Annual approved, adjusted plans of total revenues, expenditures, surplus/ deficit and actual execution of municipal budgets of Armenia in 2018 (in thousand drams) ................................ ..................................................... 193 Table 19. Per capita revenues and expenditures of municipal budgets of Armenia in 2014-2018 (in AMD and USD)* ...................................................................... 194 149 Table 20. Actual budget expenditures of the RA municipalities (including and excluding Yerevan) and Yerevan municipality, according to functional classification, 2018 ....................................................................................... 197 Table 21. Actual budget expenditures of the RA municipalities (including and excluding Yerevan) and Yerevan municipality in 2018, according to economic classification of budget expenditures ............................ 201 Table 22. Number of positions and employees holding these positions in the staff lists of Yerevan municipality and municipalities of RA marzes as of April 1, 2018 ...................................................... .................................................... 206 Table 23. Indicators on education level of mayors by Yerevan and marzes as of December 31, 2018 ...................................................................................... 207 Table 24. Gender distribution in local self-government bodies and municipal staffs as of December 31, 2018 (F-female, M-male) .................................................. 208 Table 25. Gender distribution in local self-government bodies and staffs of Yerevan municipality and administrative districts as of December 31, 2017 and 2018 ...... 209 Table 26. Number of municipal service positions as of April 1, 2018 .................... 212 Table 27. Number of appraised municipal servants, as well as announced and held competitions for open positions in