Major drawbacks are witnessed in the process of ensuring transparency in the decision-making process of district councils, municipal councils and the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia. Such a conclusion was reached by experts of “Promo-LEX” Association that presented its first monitoring report in its regional offices. The report covered 32 district councils, two municipal councils and the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia, IPN reports.
The report was compiled based on the findings of monitors who examined the activity of the players involved in the decision-making process, such as public authorities, local and regional mass media, civil society organizations, local opinion leaders, etc. The report that covered the first half of 2017 shows that to communicate with the people and interested groups, the district and municipal councils most often publish announcements on their websites (34 websites of the existing 35).
There were also kept the traditional communication methods, such as the information board, which is present at 30 local public authorities of the second level, and communication through local newspapers, which is used by 27 local public authorities of the second level. Communication through social networking sites is applied by 23 administrative units. Other means, such as the television, radio and news bulletins, are used less.
Analyzing the compliance of the information posted on the websites of the local public authorities of the second level with the legislation on transparency in the decision-making process, the experts of “Promo-LEX” established that all the monitored 34 websites have shortcomings and do not contain mandatory information. The websites of the local public authorities of the second level also ensure a low level of transparency in the public procurement process. These contain mainly the procurement plans, announcements of intent and assigned contracts.
As to costs, “Promo-LEX” determined that about 65% of the total acquisitions made by local public authorities of the second level are intended for repairing roads and buildings, while 12% for purchasing oil products. Also, 19% of the procurement contracts to the value of 13.8 million lei were signed in the monitored period based on one bid.
The report reveals that the people do not actively become involved in the process of formulating local budgets and, especially, in the process of distributing the financial resources. The experts of “Promo-LEX” recommend the district councils to publish all the stages of the budgetary process on their websites in a reasonable time frame, including the draft budgets for initiating public consultations, the changes made meanwhile and budget fulfillment reports.
