Foundation for Local Government Reform
Innovative practices in Bulgaria
Sharing innovations for improving local self-government
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Background

The environment of openness and transparency , of entire citizen awareness and accountancy for the public , of broad publicity in the media was the natural working environment of the previous managerial staff mandate 1999/2003 and the current one . This resulted in the strong confidence of citizens in the local authority, measured through the election result of 78% votes for the mayor Ivan Asparuhov in October 2003 . This also presented a high assessment of the whole team s work .

Here some of the examples of open and transparent government:

Weekly reception hours of the municipal managerial staff and annual (outside) reception hours of the mayor in 27 settlements in the municipality;

Annual reports in public on the implementation of the Development Strategy of Mezdra Municipality and the Government Programme referring to mandate 1999-2003 as well as the new government programme , broadcasted in the local media; Customers Service Center , open since 1 November 2002;

Active dialogue with business representatives : functioning Enterpreneur s Desk, adopted municipal preferences referring to enterprises and companies , opening new jobs, a Municipal Pledge Fund established for small and medium enterprises , a non - for - profit Association For Economic Development in Mezdra Municipality established ;

Since 2000 Public Councils established as support consultative bodies within the mayor s office referring to the relevant fields ;

Sessions of the Municipal council open for citizens and media ;

Public discussion on Budget 2004 held on 11 March 2004 with the broad participation of citizens , local and regional media, syndicate representatives, education, culture, health and business representatives .

Practice

After receiving the questionnaire in the beginning of February 2004 and under the management of the municipal secretary a team was formed as follows : Chair of the MC , the three deputy chairs of the MC , chief accountant / head of unit Spatial and Urban Planning , head of the Budget, Analysis and Control Unit and head of the Municipal Property Unit . Each of the participants in the team worked individually in the course of two weeks on the respective sections in the questionnaire . Later on the chair body of the Municipal Council summarized Section 1 of the Questionnaire , and the team of the municipal administration did the same with the rest of the sections . A meeting for the whole team was carried out to discuss in depth all proposed procedures and practices in the Questionnaire , and finally reaching a common statement , later on revewed by the Municipal Administration .

In the context of transparency and openness we decided to publish the filled in Questionnaire and to upload it on the web - site of Mezdra Municipality : www . mezdra . dir . bg . Following its structure we also developed a brochure , which is available to our co - citizens at the Customer Service Center .

We prepared an analysis of the results of the implemented by Mezdra Municipality practices and procedures , which are 73% of the proposed in the same Questionnaire . We definitely consider this an excellent result . In the process of discusions the following ideas for new practices emerged :

Outside sessions of the Municipal Council in the settlements of the municipality, reception hours of the Chair of the MC and municipal ocuncilors, under a preliminarily fixed scheudle ;

Outside reception hours of the Mayor besides the traditional ones in the villages , there will also be performed reception hours in the city neighborhoods and topical receptiuon hours referring to different age and social groups (ex. For young people in the Youth Center, cultural figures in the Culture Center, representatives of education, etc.);

Every three months we will carry out a municipal radio and TV forum The Mayor Answers of broad publicity and opporutnity to address questions advance and on the same forum day ;

Initiating the establishment of City Student (Youth) Parliament ;

Electing the Public mediator (to the present moment Regulations referring to the organization of activities of the Public mediator is in the process of development) ;

Organizing at least twice a year Open Gates Day ( during traditional fests of culture Mezdra May and on the Bulgarian Municipality Day 12 October providing an opportunity to all citizens to get acquainted with the daily work of the administration and to perform the role of municipal officials ;

Organizing once a year the Young Municipal Officials Day , when students from the higher grades will undertake the functions of leaders and experts in the municipal administrtion ;

We work seriously on the issue referring to offering on - line services to citizens ( we are technically and software equipped ); a software with an open code was introduced and used in Mezdra Municipality , the installment of second file and WEB - server is also envisaged , thus allowing us to deliver electronic services, we also work jointly with Regional administration Vratsa on a project on developing a Registry of State and Municipal Property Acts and exchange of information through electronic channels; software, which will serve on-line services was developed by the municipal IT specialists .

Enlarging the partnership with non-governmental organizations

In future time we will develop also an overall Programme on Improving Work in the Field of Governance Transparency , which will be open for new ideas and practices .

Results
We expect to achieve the standards of success of a democracy local government : transparency , accountability , citizen awareness and high-quality services for them, justice and fair processes . We also expect to increase the confidence of citizens in local authority and to achieve an active citizen position on key issues important for the development of the municipality .
Innovator: Nina Dankolova
Publication Date: 29 November 2004
Nominations: 4
Nina Dankolova
Secretary
Mezdra -
27 Christo Botev St.
Tel:(+359 910) 9 25 21
Fax:(+359 910) 9 25 23
http://www.mezdra.dir.bg

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