Transparency and Good Governance (GE0081)

Commitment 1: Strengthening transparency and good governance in municipalities

Municipalities annually dispose of significant budgetary funds. Transparent and fair use of budgetary funds is the major priority of municipalities.

In connection with the above, one of the principal challenges for a number of municipalities is that they lack a strategic document to analyze the challenges/threats faced by the good governance, identify the ways of their solution and activities for enhancing the good governance standards.

Based on the above, the Forum-member municipalities will develop a medium-term strategy for increasing transparency and integrity, wherein the integrity and transparency guiding standards will be established. For introducing the standards, a biennial action plan will be developed.

The introduction of transparency and integrity standards will essentially facilitate the improvement of the democratic governance quality in these municipalities.

Commitment 1: Strengthening transparency and good governance in municipalities
Lead Agency Akhaltsikhe Municipality Town Hall; Dedoplistskaro Municipality Town Hall; Khoni Municipality Town Hall; Ozurgeti Municipality; Ozurgeti Municipality Town Assembly; Rustavi Municipality Town Hall; Tskaltubo Municipality Town Hall; Dusheti Municipality Town Hall; Bolnisi Municipality Town Hall.
Other Involved Actors Public Agency
Civil Society/ Private Sector /International organization Akhaltsikhe Municipality Town Hall partner: USAID-funded Good Governance Initiative in Georgia (GGI);
Ozurgeti Municipality and Town Assembly partners – local NGOs: Progress House, Guria Youth Resource Center, Georgian Democratic Development Union;
Rustavi, Tskaltubo, Dusheti, Bolnisi, and Khoni municipalities’ partner: UNDP; Decentralization and Good Governance at the Local Level in Georgia (DGG) project; donor – Danish Government;
Dedoplistskaro Municipality Town Hall partner: German Development Agency – GIZ, local self-governance program.

Issues to be Addressed To date, municipalities lack a strategic document, wherein the transparent and good governance standards would be established.
In spite of the efforts fulfilled for introducing the democratic governance principles, the creation of a respective strategic framework is necessary, which significantly facilitates the enhancement of transparent and good governance in municipalities.
Main Objective Enhancement of transparent and good governance in Akhaltsikhe, Khoni, Ozurgeti, and Dedoplistskaro municipalities.
OGP Challenge Increasing integrity in public sector; better management of public resources.

OGP Principles Transparency Accountability Civil Participation Technology and Innovation
  
Milestones to Fulfill the Commitment New or ongoing commitment Start date End date
Preparation of a situational analysis of transparent and good governance New Fourth quarter 2018 December 2018
Preparation of an initial release version of the transparency and building integrity strategy and action plan New First quarter 2019 March 2019
Public consideration of the initial release versions of the transparency and building integrity strategy and action plan n. New First quarter 2019 June 2019
Approval of the Transparency and Building Integrity Strategy (2019-2022), Action Plan (2019-2020) and monitoring framework New Second quarter 2019 September 2019

Indicator The Transparency and Building Integrity Strategy (2019-2022), the respective Action Plan (2019-2020) and the monitoring framework have been developed and approved by the Municipality Assembly.

Commitment 16: Strengthening Transparency and Good Governance in Municipalities

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

“Municipalities annually dispose of significant budgetary funds. Transparent and fair use of budgetary funds is the major priority of municipalities.

In connection with the above, one of the principal challenges for a number of municipalities is that they lack a strategic document to analyze the challenges/threats faced by the good governance, identify the ways of their solution and activities for enhancing the good governance standards.

Based on the above, the Forum-member municipalities will develop a medium-term strategy for increasing transparency and integrity, wherein the integrity and transparency guiding standards will be established. For introducing the standards, a biennial action plan will be developed.

The introduction of transparency and integrity standards will essentially facilitate the improvement of the democratic governance quality in these municipalities."

Milestones: 

1. Preparation of a situational analysis of transparent and good governance
2. Preparation of an initial release version of the transparency and building integrity strategy and action plan
3. Public consideration of the initial release versions of the transparency and building integrity strategy and action plan.
4. Approval of the Transparency and Building Integrity Strategy (2019-2022), Action Plan (2019-2020) and monitoring framework 

Start Date: September 2018

End Date: September 2019

Editorial note: For the full text of this commitment, please see https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/georgia-action-plan-2018-2019/.

Context and Objectives

In 2016, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development recommended that Georgia develop anti-corruption actions for local governments to improve integrity and the enforcement of conflict-of-interest policies and anti-corruption restrictions. [84] Under this commitment, the United States Agency for International Development Good Governance Initiative (USAID GGI) , [85] the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), [86] and the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) [87] will partner with local organizations and experts to support eight Georgian municipalities in developing strategies for transparency and integrity, along with relevant implementation action plans. [88]

First, this commitment calls for carrying out a situational analysis to help develop the first drafts of the strategies and action plans. Next, the first drafts will be released for public consultation. Finally, the drafts will be submitted for approval to the municipalities. According to stakeholders, these strategies will be used to identify potential anti-corruption risks in local government and develop specific mechanisms for promoting integrity and transparency.

UNDP [89] will partner with Khoni, Rustavi, Tskaltubo, Dusheti, and Bolnisi to incorporate the Islands of Integrity methodology, which was launched in Kutaisi in 2018. [90] USAID GGI will partner with Akhaltsikhe and Ozurgeti, and GIZ will provide support to Dedoplistskaro to facilitate their needs analyses, strategy developments, and public consultations. According to USAID GGI and GIZ, [91] the strategic documents will involve publishing information proactively, introducing timelines for responding to citizen requests, and consulting with interested parties, among others. Thus, this commitment is relevant to the OGP values of access to information and civic participation.

The milestones presented in the commitment are verifiable. The entire process is divided into four distinct and measurable steps: 1) performing a situational analysis, 2) developing first draft documents, 3) ensuring public consultation and feedback, and 4) submitting drafts for approval.

According to USAID GGI and GIZ, the strategic documents will address issues related to ethics and integrity mechanisms, human resources management system, transparency standards, civic engagement and oversight mechanisms, state procurement transparency, and integrity standards of subordinate legal entities. [92] However, according to an interviewed UNDP representative, the development of strategic documents alone will not immediately lead to improved transparency and accountability in the eight municipalities. Rather, the improvements will depend on how the strategies are implemented. [93] Similarly, according to an interviewed Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association representative, [94] proper implementation of mechanisms provided in strategic documents will ultimately determine the long-term impact of the projects.

However, stakeholders also pointed out that the implementation of these strategies could have some immediate benefits to the municipalities, such as fostering the engagement and participation of local residents and civil society organizations in the elaboration process. This could not only boost their interest and capacities to monitor government activities closely, [95] but also increase the accountability and the quality of service delivery on the part of governments. [96] [97] In addition, the elaboration process could raise general awareness about and strengthen the capacities of local public servants on anti-corruption, integrity, and transparency-related issues. Such conditions are prerequisites for better internal management and higher quality in the delivering services to citizens.

Overall, this commitment could have a moderate potential impact by introducing new standards of integrity, transparency, and accountability in the selected municipalities.

Next steps

During the drafting of the strategies, the IRM researcher recommends that the eight municipalities engage with a wide range of local civil society or interest groups and residents in identifying the priorities to be addressed. Once the strategies are adopted, the local government bodies could develop relevant accountability monitoring mechanisms that include local civil society organizations and residents.

Currently, there is no permanent coordination between municipalities and partners that are involved in the process. Accordingly, the IRM researcher recommends that stakeholders establish a permanent coordination platform to avoid isolated decision making; share experiences about their approaches, priorities, and methodologies; and ensure coordinated efforts for achieving successful strategies, action plans, and monitoring of frameworks for all municipalities.

The IRM researcher also recommends the development of evaluation mechanisms to assess success in each partner municipality. Such mechanisms would allow step-by-step replication of successful experiences in other municipalities nationwide.

[84] Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Anti-Corruption Reforms in Georgia: 4th Round of Monitoring of the Istanbul Anti-Corruption Action Plan, 2016, https://bit.ly/2JyfuJN.

[85] Tetra Tech, “Georgia Good Governance Initiative,” https://bit.ly/2XKANLJ.

[86] UNDP, “Fostering Decentralisation and Good Governance at the Local Level,” https://bit.ly/2XEwoyW.

[87] GIZ, “Good Local Governance in South Caucasus,” https://bit.ly/2LheTOJ.

[88] The eight municipalities are 1) Akhaltsikhe, 2) Dedoplistskharo, 3) Khoni, 4) Ozurgeti, 5) Rustavi, 6), Tskaltubo, 7) Dusheti, and 8) Bolnisi.

[89] Nino Kakubava, Project Manager, and Giorgi Nasrashvili, Good Governance Expert, at UNDP project: Fostering Decentralization and Good Governance at the Local Level in Georgia, interview with IRM researcher, 10 June 2019.

[90] UNDP, “Kutaisi—The Island of Integrity,” 27 February 2018, https://bit.ly/2YPudoR.

[91] Mariam Gorgadze, Deputy Chief of Party and Mikheil Darchiashvili, Governance Manager at USAID GGI, interview with IRM research, 14 May 2019.

[92] Information provided to the IRM by USAID GGI during the pre-publication review of this report.

[93] Kakubava and Nasrashvili interview, June 2019.

[94] Nino Tsukhishvili, Parliamentary Secretary, Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, interview with IRM researcher, 5 July 2019.

[95] Tsukhishvili interview, 2019.

[96] Giorgi Meladze, Director of Constitutional Research Center and associate professor at the Law School of Ilia State University, interview with IRM researcher, 8 June 2019.

[97] Kakubava and Nasrashvili interview, June 2019.

16. Strengthen transparency and good governance in municipalities

Theme VI: Municipalities

Substantial

Commitment 16: Strengthen transparency and good governance in municipalities

Aim of the commitment

This commitment aimed to strengthen the resilience of local governments against the threats of corruption by developing strategies and action plans for building integrity and transparency in eight municipalities of Georgia. [4]

Did it open government?

Marginal

With the support of international partners and development organizations [5] all eight municipalities performed situation analyses, developed strategies for transparency and integrity, as well as corresponding action plans, and monitoring frameworks. [6] [7] The process included public hearings and consultations with local stakeholders such as CSOs, municipality personnel, academia, and active citizens. [8] [9] [10] However, Tskaltubo, Dusheti, and Rustavi Municipalities did not officially adopt their strategic documents by the end of the action plan period. [11] Therefore, the commitment is considered substantially rather than fully implemented.

Prior to this commitment, none of the selected eight municipalities had developed dedicated official strategies that promoted integrity, transparency, and anti-corruption policies in their municipal governments. The implementation of this commitment at this early stage brought positive changes in anti-corruption practices in the municipalities. Firstly, the fact that the policy documents were elaborated based on the situational analysis of local practices reflecting needs of citizens, brought a considerable experience of transparent and participative policy-making to the municipal governments. Secondly, elaboration of the policy documents raised new issues of transparency and integrity that were previously missing from everyday self-governance practice. Finally, the capacity-building activities for local government personnel helped to raise local competence to better understand the strategic purpose and implement the activities set out in the action plans in most of the municipalities.        

For example, under its new strategy, developed with the support of the UNDP project “Fostering Decentralization and Good Governance at the Local Level in Georgia” (DGG), Khoni Municipality committed to implement activities that triggered a change in municipal service delivery. In 2019, Khoni allocated internal resources and initiated a Citizen Center, along with a new single-window public service delivery. [12] This allowed citizens to receive information and services in one place and from specifically trained personnel, compared to the previous practice in which citizens were forced to wander door-to-door in the Town Hall building for different information and services. Furthermore, in collaboration with a local CSO, the municipality introduced a new hotline service that enables citizens to acquire information on municipal services and procedures remotely, without visiting the Town Hall, that was not available before either via telephone or the official webpage. [13] CSOs acknowledge this change as a major step forward in access to public service-related information and delivery in Khoni. [14]        

Ozurgeti, with the assistance of the USAID Good Governance Institute (GGI), developed a comprehensive Monitoring and Evaluation methodology to implement its Transparency and Building Integrity Strategy and Action Plan. The methodology institutionalizes mechanisms for CSOs to engage in the monitoring and assessment process by providing feedback on local government activities under the action plan. The local government now has an obligation to respond to CSOs within the monitoring framework document, which is available publicly. [15] According to USAID GGI, this is the first instance in Georgia in which a Municipality Council institutionalized local civil society involvement in the monitoring of local government action plan and activities. [16]

In Dedoplistkharo, the Council – the representative body - approved the Building Integrity and Transparency Strategy Action Plan along with the monitoring framework. The stakeholders assessed the Council’s approval as a good example of establishing a high legitimacy ^[17] for the implementation of the strategy.

These efforts to start good governance practices led to OGP Local Program membership for Akhaltsikhe, Khoni, and Ozurgeti municipalities in 2020. All three municipalities approved Integrity and Transparency Strategies under this commitment. Joining the OGP Local Program could further open up a unique platform for gaining international visibility, and access to knowledge, resources, and opportunities.

As a result of capturing promising early results, and to further foster transparency and good governance practices, the donor organizations extended the scope of their support to additional municipalities in Georgia. Namely, USAID GGI selected six new municipalities (Gori, Llagodekhi, Senaki, Telavi, Tbilisi, and Zugdidi) to develop and approve Building Integrity and Transparency action plans in 2021-2022. [18]