Public Administration Improvement by Training Programs Project
Svetlana Alexandrova
New Bulgarian University
No. 8/2000
The project was initiated in May, 1999, and ended in May, 2000. Project participants included: FLGR; the Public Administration Center of the New Bulgarian University; the Post-Graduate Education Center of the University of National and World Economy. The project was funded by Open Society.
Under the project, educational institutions and non-governmental organizations cooperated to provide training to local administration representatives.
A needs assessment provided the necessary preliminary information that was used to develop a training program for mayors of small and midsize municipalities and to provide pilot training.
The training program included four modules: municipal management; local finance; municipal property management; citizen participation and partnership in local government. For each topic of the modules, the participants were given written materials.
The first module focused on the issues related to local government in the period of transition to a market economy, the European practices, the harmonization of Bulgarian legislation with EU legislation pertaining to local government, local administration and autonomy.
The second module, Local Finance, included the following topics: Municipal Finance: Tax Revenues; Budget and Local Finance; Funding Sources for Municipalities; Municipal Cost Policy.
The third module, Municipal Property Management, included the following topics: Territorial Development and Town Planning Practices: Municipality and Business Organizations; Legislative Framework of Municipal Administration; Property and Use of Agricultural Land Act; Legislative Framework of Privatization; Legislative Regulation of Public Procurement: the Public Procurement Act.
The fourth module, Citizen Participation and Partnership in Local Government, included some very important topics: how can the municipalities strengthen their capacity and assist business development by involving business actors and citizens; what is local government s new role in an environment of growing urbanization; strengthening the European integration; what are the trends with respect to granting more authority to local governments; how NGOs can cooperate with local governments to improve municipal welfare and achieve financial stability; what are local governments new responsibilities as leaders in establishing partnerships; how can local governments encourage citizen participation. All of these issues were reviewed within this module.
30 mayors of small and midsize municipalities were trained under the project. The summarized analysis of their evaluation of the modules shows that the trainees evaluate positively the quality of teaching. It turned out that, in order to have the Bulgarian municipalities become the pro-active party in the European integration process, the trainees needed specific skills in the development of projects that could apply for funding under the EU programs.
The training demonstrated that the seminars increase the level of awareness of local government representatives and provide additional and up-to-date information.