Financial Transparency Tools (MK0132)

Establishing new tools for financial transparency improvement and accountability of LSGUs and social inclusion
Start and end date of the commitment: August 2018 – August 2020
Lead implementing agency
Ministry of Local Self-Government
Description of commitment
Status quo or problem addressed by the commitment
There is a need to provide institutional and easier access to information regarding the local-self government operation, especially in the part regarding public finances execution, as well as encouraging inclusive approach in the decision making processes.
Main objective
Ensuring conditions for greater financial transparency of the local self-government and access to information for all citizens, aimed at increasing the level of inclusion of persons with disabilities.
Brief description of the commitment
Establishing electronic boards in the municipalities as a very accessible way of informing the members of the councils and the general public regarding the key financial data from the operation of the municipality and the public services, by automatic download of the quarterly reports on budget execution drafted by the municipal administration and their accessibility to council members and the general public through the control boards. The data are published in
a manner that is understandable for council members who are not financial experts, as well as for the citizens. The goal is to provide the council members to perform the control function more responsibly as well as to make decisions based on information in close cooperation and in consultation with the citizens. Implementation of projects that will stimulate the inclusive approach in decision making. Also, adjusting the municipalities’ WEB pages to the needs and requiremets of persons with disabilities, in order to provide access to information and greater inclusion of these persons in the decision-making processes.
OGP challenge addressed by the commitment
Innovative access and tools for easier access to information, as well as information processing in a manner that is accessible and understandable for all citizens. Proactive members of councils and citizens, more open local government. Greater social inclusion of persons with disabilities at local level.
Additional information
Reference to Global Sustainable Development Goals - Objective 16 "Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions", Target 16.6: Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels. The measures under this commitment contribute to promoting transparency and accountability in the public finances management at local level
5.1.1 Setting up electronic information boards with data on financial operations on the websites of the municipalities Cair, Veles, Ohrid, Strumica, Sveti Nikole and Valandovo
5.1.2 Implementation of an additional tool (one in each 24 municipalities) for introducing management innovations.
5.1.3 Supporting the implementation of projects in a total of 24 municipalities in cooperation with citizens and CSOs
5.1.4 Setting up electronic information boards with data on the financial operation on the websites of the new 18 municipalities
5.1.5 Preparation of a Guideline and adaptation of the municipalities’ WEB pages from the East Planning Region for persons with disabilities
5.1.6 Trainings for access to information, for persons with disabilities
5.1.7 Campaign for the right to equal access to information and services for all citizens at local level
Contact information
Name of responsible person from implementing agency
Eli Chakar, coordinator
Title, Department
State Advisor
Phone and e-mail
elicakar@gmail.com, 071 226 415
Other actors involved
Ministry of Finance Local self-government units
UNDP Ilmiasan Dauti – Project Manager Martin Nikolikj – Reaserch Assistant ilmiasan.dauti@undp.org martin.nikolic@undp.org Association for promotion and development of inclusive society INKLUZIVA e-mail: inkluziva@gmail.com Blagica Dimitrovska – coordinator Tel: 076 279 663,076 279 662

Theme V: Transparency at Local Level

5.1. Establishing new tools for financial transparency improvement and accountability of LSGUs and social inclusion

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan: [64]

“Establishing electronic boards in the municipalities as a very accessible way of informing the members of the councils and the general public regarding the key financial data from the operation of the municipality and the public services, by automatic download of the quarterly reports on budget execution drafted by the municipal administration and their accessibility to council members and the general public through the control boards. The data are published in a manner that is understandable for council members who are not financial experts, as well as for the citizens. The goal is to provide the council members to perform the control function more responsibly as well as to make decisions based on information in close cooperation and in consultation with the citizens. Implementation of projects that will stimulate the inclusive approach in decision making. Also, adjusting the municipalities’ WEB pages to the needs and requiremets of persons with disabilities, in order to provide access to information and greater inclusion of these persons in the decision-making processes.”

Milestones:

5.1.1 Setting up electronic information boards with data on financial operations on the websites of the municipalities Cair, Veles, Ohrid, Strumica, Sveti Nikole and Valandovo

5.1.2 Implementation of an additional tool (one in each 24 municipalities) for introducing management innovations.

5.1.3 Supporting the implementation of projects in a total of 24 municipalities in cooperation with citizens and CSOs

5.1.4 Setting up electronic information boards with data on the financial operation on the websites of the new 18 municipalities

5.1.5 Preparation of a Guideline and adaptation of the municipalities’ WEB pages from the East Planning Region for persons with disabilities

5.1.6 Trainings for access to information, for persons with disabilities

5.1.7 Campaign for the right to equal access to information and services for all citizens at local level

Start Date: August 2018

End Date: August 2020

Context and Objectives

This commitment continues Commitment 6.2 from North Macedonia’s third action plan (2016-2018), which included measures for improving financial transparency of local self-government units (LSUs). The commitment led to the creation of dashboards that allow users to access and download financial data of 20 indicators in five out of six targeted municipalities. [65] These indicators include, among others, total operating income and expenses, revenues and expenditures per category, liabilities, status of debt, and borrowing of municipalities and public enterprises. [66]

This current commitment seeks to expand on these efforts by establishing similar financial dashboards for the websites of 18 additional North Macedonian municipalities (Milestone 5.1.4). This would bring the total number of municipalities to 24 (including the six from the third action plan). The commitment also calls for the implementation of an additional tool to introduce innovations in management for each of the 24 municipalities (5.1.2). The introduction of the management innovations for the first six municipalities was not completed during the third action plan and has been carried forward to this plan. Although not specified in the current commitment, the additional innovation tool aims to facilitate public consultation and help the public more easily access specific services or data. Furthermore, the commitment also plans to implement projects in the 24 municipalities in cooperation with the public and civil society (5.1.3). Lastly, the commitment has an added focus on supporting persons with disabilities in accessing information at the local level. Specifically, it plans to make municipalities’ websites more accessible to persons with disabilities (5.1.5), conduct trainings for persons with disabilities on accessing information (5.1.6) and conduct a campaign for the right to equal access to information and services for all citizens (5.1.7).

The commitment is directly relevant to the OGP value of access to information, as it seeks to improve access to financial data held by LSUs, including for persons with disabilities. Most of the other planned activities are verifiable, though some lack important details that would help assess their potential impact. For example, the trainings and campaign under milestones 5.1.6 and 5.1.7 do not provide further information on how these activities will be conducted. In addition, it is unclear how Milestone 5.1.1 differs from an already completed activity under the previous action plan, namely the establishment of financial dashboards in the original six municipalities.

Overall, this commitment could represent a moderate improvement to access to financial information held by LSUs. Notably, it seeks to expand the practice of financial dashboards from the six original municipalities to 24. As noted in the IRM’s End-of-Term Report for the previous action plan, the dashboards (with the inclusion of the identified indicators) significantly expanded the amount of financial data available to the public for the six original municipalities. [67] Additionally, the online and mobile tools allowed for easier access to financial data, with the possibility to download and manipulate it. If the 18 new municipalities can replicate the successes and include similar financial indicators, this commitment could provide further precedent for other LSUs to follow. If the commitment reaches its target of 24 municipalities, this would mean that approximately one third of all municipalities in North Macedonia would have these financial dashboards. [68]

Next steps

The Ministry of Local Self-Government could prioritize the following additional actions to ensure the measures for improving budget transparency will be effective:

• Lay out detailed plan for engaging citizens and CSOs in the process of setting up the information board and the implementation of the government’s other initiatives.
• In addition to transparency measures, the local self-government units could explore mechanisms for public participation both in the formulation of the budget and the monitoring of its implementation. These mechanisms could include participatory budgeting and social audits.

[64] The texts for all the commitments are an abridged version of the commitment texts. For the full commitment texts, see the Republic of North Macedonia 2018-2020 National Action Plan, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Macedonia_Action-Plan_2018-2020_EN.pdf

[65] At the time of the IRM End-of-Term Report, Cair, Ohrid, Sventi Nikole, Valandovo, and Veles had developed the dashboards, and Strumica’s dashboard was forthcoming.

[66] IRM, Republic of Macedonia End-of-Term Report 2016-2018, p 57, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Macedonia_End-of-Term_Report_2016-2018_EN.pdf

[67] Ibid.

[68] There are 84 municipalities in the Republic of North Macedonia, https://portal.cor.europa.eu/divisionpowers/Pages/Macedonia.aspx

Commitment 5.1 New tools for financial transparency and accountability of local self-government units (LSGUs)

Substantial:

Information dashboards which contain quarterly and annual financial reports have been set up on the webpages of the six municipalities (Cair, Veles, Ohrid, Strumica, Sveti Nikole, and Valandovo), and are also available on the indikatori.opstinskisoveti.mk webpage. Twenty-four municipalities (the above-mentioned six and an additional 18) were invited to publish their financial reports on this platform to gather systematic financial data for all municipalities in one place. [63]. However, not all municipalities update their webpages regularly. For example, the last quarterly report published for Mogila Municipality is for the period January to September 2020. [64]

Additional innovative tools have been implemented in the 24 municipalities. They were able to select which tool they wished to implement, including broadcasting council meetings live, technical and special improvements to create conditions for citizens’ participation, and participatory budgeting. [65] The 24 municipalities have introduced electronic tables where they provide financial information. [66]

The six municipalities organized forums with citizens, civil society, business sector, education, and social protection representatives to select specific projects to be implemented by each municipality. The sessions of the six municipal councils are publicly available for the municipalities via the respective webpages and YouTube. Participants in each session jointly selected one project to be implemented by the respective municipality. Each municipality received 50,000 Swiss francs from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation to implement selected projects (such as reconstruction of the roof or improvement of the equipment of kindergartens). Of the 24 projects, 20 have been completed, and the remaining four are expected to be completed by June 2021 (COVID-19 delayed some activities). [67] After a project was completed, one additional participatory forum session was usually held, but some sessions were postponed due to the pandemic. The forum sessions allowed citizens to prioritize projects that they considered important. Before the introduction of such forums, municipalities alone selected the projects for implementation and many projects were related to improving infrastructure, whereas after the introduction of the forums, projects mostly focused on improving facilities regularly used by citizens. [68]

The citizen association Inkluziva prepared and published guidelines for adapting websites for people with disabilities. [69] [70] The municipalities in the East Planning Region adapted their webpages for people with visual impairments [71] to ease webpage navigation and searches. [72] Inkluziva also provided six trainings for 107 state officials on access to information for persons with disabilities, [73] a roundtable with 35 participants, and a public debate with 32 participants. [74]