The Public Administration Reform (Par) Roadmap Monitoring in 8 Municipalities of Western Georgia
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
IMERETI, RACHA-LECHKHUMI, GURIA THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORM (PAR) ROADMAP MONITORING IN 8 MUNICIPALITIES OF WESTERN GEORGIA REPORT No3 2021 1 CSO FORUM MEETINGS AND TRAININGS SWOT THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORM (PAR) ROADMAP MONITORING IN 8 MUNICIPALITIES OF WESTERN GEORGIA REPORT No 3 VANI, TERJOLA, BAGDATI, KHONI AMBROLAURI, TSAGERI, LANCHKHUTI, OZURGETI Publication prepared by Published under the THE CULTURAL-HUMANITARIAN FUND “SUKHUMI” project “A Common THE FUND OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS Forum of CSOs from Guria, Imereti and IMERETI SCIENTISTS’ UNION “SPECTRI” Racha-Lechkhumi for PAR Roadmap The Director of the project: Monitoring”. ALLA GAMAKHARIA (The Cultural-Humanitarian Fund “Sukhumi”) This publication has been produced with the assistance of the The project coordinators: European Union. Its TEA TORINAVA (The Cultural-Humanitarian Fund “Sukhumi”) contents are the sole MERI GELASHVILI (The Fund of Women Entrepreneurs) responsibility of the Cultural-Humanitarian KETEVAN TSKHAKAIA (Imereti Scientists’ Union “Spectri”) Fund “Sukhumi” and do not necessarily Editor: LALI SHENGELIA reflect the views of the Editor: LALI SHENGELIA European Union.” Translator: DIANA KUSIANI 2021 CONTENTS PROGRESS ASSESSMENT OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORM (PAR) IMPLEMENTATION IN LOCAL SELF - GOVERNMENTS THE THIRD MONITORING CONSOLIDATED REPORT 6 1. INTRODUCTION 6 2. MONITORING AIM AND METHODOLOGY 7 3. MONITORING FINDINGS - PROGRESS AND GAP ASSESSMENT 9 3.1. TRANSPARENCY 9 3.2. EFFICIENCY 13 3.3. INCLUSIVENESS/PARTICIPATION 15 4. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 20 THE THIRD REPORT OF THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORM (PAR) ROADMAP MONITORING AT THE LOCAL LEVEL VANI MUNICIPALITY 29 INTRODUCTION 30 TRANSPARENCY 31 EFFICIENCY 33 INCLUSIVENESS 35 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 37 TERJOLA MUNICIPALITY 39 INTRODUCTION 40 TRANSPARENCY 41 EFFICIENCY 43 INCLUSIVENESS 45 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 48 BAGDATI MUNICIPALITY 51 INTRODUCTION 52 TRANSPARENCY 53 EFFICIENCY 55 INCLUSIVENESS 57 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 59 KHONI MUNICIPALITY 61 INTRODUCTION 62 4 TRANSPARENCY 63 EFFICIENCY 65 INCLUSIVENESS 67 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 69 AMBROLAURI MUNICIPALITY 71 INTRODUCTION 72 TRANSPARENCY 73 EFFICIENCY 74 INCLUSIVENESS 76 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 79 TSAGERI MUNICIPALITY 81 INTRODUCTION 82 TRANSPARENCY 83 EFFICIENCY 85 INCLUSIVENESS 88 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 91 LANCHKHUTI MUNICIPALITY 93 INTRODUCTION 94 TRANSPARENCY 95 EFFICIENCY 96 INCLUSIVENESS 98 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 100 OZURGETI MUNICIPALITY 103 INTRODUCTION 104 TRANSPARENCY 105 EFFICIENCY 107 INCLUSIVENESS 109 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 112 APPENDIX THE MONITORING MECHANISM (QUESTIONNAIRE) FOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORM ROADMAP MONITORING IN 8 TARGET MUNICIPALITIES 114 5 MONITORING PROGRESS ASSESSMENT OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORM (PAR) IMPLEMENTATION IN LOCAL SELF - GOVERNMENTS THE THIRD MONITORING CONSOLIDATED REPORT LIZI SOPROMADZE EXPERT ON LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT NELE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT CENTRE 1. INTRODUCTION Proper and effective governance promotes and strengthens the building of a demo- cratic state. The policy documents, strategies and development plans elaborated by the government determine the governance efficiency. According to the demo- cratic and good governance principles, the inclusiveness of civil society and various actors in the decision-making process made by government and regarding public policy is crucial. The inclusiveness of civil society in policy planning and implementation is consid- ered one of the fundamental elements of democratic governance. Public involve- ment increases trust in the political system and the government legitimacy. Civil monitoring is one of the most powerful tools providing civil society participation in public policy implementation. The central part of the activities of non-govern- mental organizations is either aimed at monitoring a particular field or includes a monitoring component. Successful implementation of Public Administration Reform (PAR) plays a funda- mental role in Georgia’s integration into the EU. Under the “Georgia-EU Association Agreement”, the country must implement in-depth reforms regarding public admin- istration and public service. The PAR Plan foresees two main objectives regarding the local government: 6 IMERETI, RACHA-LECHKHUMI, GURIA Strengthening of local governments through increasing their power; Gradual development and improvement of electronic services in mu- nicipalities for improving their accessibility in local self-governments. An essential component of strengthening local self-government is the gradual de- velopment and improvement of e-services in municipalities. The reform action plan for 2019-2020 responds to this issue. Civil society must be more actively involved to ensure local governance transpar- ency, accountability and inclusiveness and effectively implement PAR at the local level. To contribute to the proper implementation of PAR at the local level, as well as transparent, efficient, accountable and inclusive local administration, Cultural-Hu- manitarian Fund “Sukhumi” with “Fund of Women Entrepreneurs” and Imereti Scientists` Union “Spectri” is implementing the project - “A common forum for CSOs from Guria, Imereti and Racha-Lechkhumi for PAR Roadmap monitoring”. The project aims at actively involving the civil society organizations (CSO) from eight municipalities of Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi and Guria in the monitoring pro- cess of PAR implementation at the local self-governments through creation and strengthening of CSO Forum (“Forum”). Eight inter-sectoral “working groups” have been set up in all the target munici- palities to strengthen the local coordination and cooperation between CSOs and the structural units of local self-government in the process of PAR and analyse the shortcomings identified as a result of the monitoring and ensure the efficiency of the response. The working group is the first coordination mechanism created to promote the proper implementation of PAR in the target municipalities. It involves the representatives (10-12 people in total) of the local authorities, CSOs (includ- ing “Forum” members), media and vulnerable groups (persons with disabilities, single women, women victims of violence, IDPs, families with many children, etc.). Its activities and functions have been set forth by the relevant provision and ap- proved by the municipalities. “Working groups” have elaborated the local action plans currently considered, adopted and approved by all the City Councils of target municipalities. It will contribute to improving the e-government system at the local level. Detailed advocacy strategies have been developed to address the existing problems. As a result of the active advocacy campaign conducted by the working groups and their efforts, several gaps and problems identified during the monitoring have been addressed and solved. 7 MONITORING 2. MONITORING AIM AND METHODOLOGY The third monitoring aims to assess the progress of recommendations elabo- rated for addressing the gaps identified through the second monitoring; to identify challenges regarding the transparency, efficiency and inclusiveness of the local self-government electronic services and develop new recommendations to improve the deficiencies. The monitoring was conducted in February 2021 in 8 municipalities of Georgia, in- cluding Khoni, Bagdati, Terjola, Vani, Ozurgeti, Lanchkhuti, Tsageri and Ambrolauri municipalities, by 16 NGOs consolidated in the “CSO forum”. The level of efficiency, transparency and inclusiveness of local government work has been studied according to the monitoring mechanism and the questionnaire elaborated by the project partners. It implied 29 different criteria and assessment indicators. The PAR implementation assessment has been carried out based on the monitoring of the official websites of municipalities and the analysis of the infor- mation requested from the local authority representatives, and the observation of the citizens’ participation practices on grounds. Telephone communication, private meetings, and official online sources have been used to retrieve and verify the in- formation. MONITORING IMPLEMENTATION METHODS: Study of the municipality official website; Analysis of legislation regulating monitoring issues, normative acts and reg- ulations of municipalities; Requesting public information; Sending test e-mails, telephone communication and meetings with the rep- resentatives of the municipality relevant services - to verify and fill in the information; Observing issues on the local political agenda. The monitoring has revealed that there is visible progress regarding the implemen- tation of public administration reform in the municipalities. Local political processes have become noticeably transparent and effective, increasing the level of citizen participation. 8 IMERETI, RACHA-LECHKHUMI, GURIA 3. MONITORING FINDINGS - PROGRESS AND GAP ASSESSMENT 3.1. TRANSPARENCY The local self-government transparency has been assessed based on the following indicators and parameters: Transparency of the vacancy announcement process in the municipalities; Accessibility of the organizational structure of City Council and City Hall, and CVs or contact information of the public servants on the municipality web- sites; Accessibility of the public information on City Council and City Hall sessions and meetings, reports and minutes of specific departments, normative acts adopted by the City Council, approved budgets on the websites; Availability