[Report on ZELS activities] [Contribution to the European Commission Progress Report on the Republic of Macedonia]

Transcription

1 The Report includes some of the activities which results could give a contribution and appropriate evaluation to a comprehensive progress of the Republic of Macedonia on its road towards European integration. [Report on ZELS activities] [Contribution to the European Commission Progress Report on the Republic of Macedonia] August, 2012 ZELS

2 TABLE OF CONTENT 1. FINANCE AND LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.. 2 a. Analysis "The effects of the economic and financial crisis on municipalities"...2 b. Establishing cooperation with the Council of foreign investors in the Republic of Macedonia...3 c. Temporary employment in the municipalities - Joint action of ZELS and the Government of the Republic of Macedonia.3 d. Bussiness Friendly Environment Certification of the municipalities EUROPEAN INTEGRATION.. 3 a. Seventh Meeting of the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) between the Republic of Macedonia and the EU, represented by the European Union Committee of the Regions...3 b. Memorandum of Cooperation with SEA CAPACITY BUILDING OF THE LOCAL STATE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION 4 a. Collaboration with MISA in the part on training of the local administration...5 b. Application of the Law on water management...5 c. Acquisition with authorization for conducting the procedure on alienation and lease of state-owned construction land..5 d. Employment and job systematization...6 e. Integration of marketing in public relations 6 f. Adult education in local development function ENERGY EFFICIENCY PUBLIC RELATIONS AT THE LOCAL LEVEL INTERETHNIC RELATIONS. 8 1

3 Association of the Units of Local Self-government of the Republic of Macedonia ZELS, in the period from May to August, 2012, carried out a series of activities aimed to improving the local economy and finance, capacity building of municipalities in the area of: construction land, environmental protection, development human resources, public relations and education. In the fourmonth period, were trained a total of 206 state servnats from the municipal administration, under the ZELS s new introduced system of checking the acquired knowledge in order to make the gradation of need for further inmplemetation of capacity building activities. The Report includes some of the activities which results could give a contribution and appropriate evaluation to a comprehensive progress of the Republic of Macedonia on its road towards European integration. 1. FINANCE AND LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT a. Analysis "The effects of the economic and financial crisis on municipalities" The analyses of the results shows that the global financial crisis caused a certain impact on the Macedonian municipalities - 47 (95.9% of incoming responses) stated that they are affected by the crisis, and two or 4.1% said that the global crisis has caused a negative impact on their operations. The analysis shows that the effects of the impact of the crisis are almost equal in both rural and urban municipalities. 57% of urban point reduction in donations compared to the previous period, and a similar situation is with the rural municipalities with 52.6%. Reduction is indicated in terms of capital investment, ie 66.7% of the urban municipalities, while in rural areas this figure is 31.65%. In common context, 55.3% of the municipalities consider that revenues donations are reduced and the reduction of capital grants was emphasized by 48.6% of the municipalities. Twenty-four municipalities have reported that the austerity measures are taken in relation to their current costs and undertake measures to ensure favorable conditions for attracting and securing investments in the municipality. Undertaken measures for management of the economic crisis can be divided into two groups. The first group of measures aimed to improving own revenues - taking action and innovative measures to increase their own revenues, and law enforcement for collecting local taxes. The second group includes austerity measures and can be classified into several categories - first, non-payment or reduction of the representative, travel and per diem expenses for business trips; second, saving utility costs (electricity, water, telephone, heating and office supplies); third, the "freezing" of employment or minimizing it, as well as moratorium on promotions as a part of career development; fourth, other as delayed implementation of projects, reducing capital investment, loan borrowing for capital investment, continuous monitoring and payment obligations for budget users, deteriorating liabilities bigger than opportunities, twinning with municipalities members of EU, increasing the proportion of capital investment in the budget, support to financing the projects of public interest by the budget, increasing welfare rate for 100%, hiring unemployed in public affairs at all levels. 2

4 b. Establishing cooperation with the Council of foreign investors in the Republic of Macedonia ZELS and Macedonian Foreign Investors Council agreed to establish mutual direct communication defined by the common signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation. The initiative came from the Council, as was pointed out, 140 foreign investors in the Republic of Macedonia need to establish relationships of trust and dialogue, and cooperation with influential institutions in the country, among which is ZELS. Council came to this conclusion after reviewing the co-operation with local authorities, infrastructure challenges, issuing certain permits, paying local taxes, as well as opportunities to support the country in attracting foreign capital. Finding a common interest - local authorities (represented by President and CEO of ZELS) and foreign investors in the Republic of Macedonia (represented by Makedonski Telekom CEO and general manager of Johnson Matthey in Skopje), have agreed to set up a special body for foreign investment within ZELS whose responsible person will have a more direct cooperation with the Council and existing investors, as well issues related to local authorities will be treated, while the framework of mutual actions will be defined by the legal instrument for cooperation. c. Temporary employment in the municipalities - Joint action of ZELS and the Government of the Republic of Macedonia About unemployed persons from the municipalities will have the opportunity to realize employment for at least six months, for activities related to the execution of public works. Preference will be given to persons aged over 55, who are registered as unemployed for a long period of time and who have lower educational qualifications. The Government will allocate funds for 50% of employed persons, and the funding for remaining 2000 persons will be provided by the municipalities. Monthly income of employed persons is denars, including personal tax and insurance in case of injury. Employment is performed on the basis of a public announcement for applications of interested candidates to engage in projects established by municipalities. The distribution of the number of employed persons is conducted according to criteria established by a Working Group composed of representatives of line ministries, ZELS and municipalities. d. Bussiness Friendly Environment Certification of the municipalities ZELS has started implementing a project "Bussiness Friendly Environment Certification of the municipalities on the basis of a Memorandum of Cooperation signed with the Chambers of Commerce of the Republic of Macedonia, the Ministry of Economy, the Agency of foreign Investments, and with four pilot municipalities: Veles, Strumica, Stip and Struga. Four pilot municipalities will be proficient to gain the Certificate on securing conditions favorable to the business environment, as assumed previously to meet the 12 criteria that will allow a better competitiveness, foreign investment market, easier access in the development of regional cooperation to improve the efficiency of municipalities in terms of growing international competition in the economic sector. 2. EUROPEAN INTEGRATION a. Seventh Meeting of the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) between the Republic of Macedonia and the EU, represented by the EU Committee of the Regions 3

5 The seventh meeting of the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) between the Republic of Macedonia and the European Union Committee of the Regions was held in Stip. The meeting was organizational, logistical and financially fully supported by ZELS and the Municipality of Stip. Delegates from ZELS and EU concluded that: Republic of Macedonia has certainly paved its progress in the development of European integration; Aprised the projects implemented in the area of delivering electronic services in a way that significantly contributes to the development of transparent and accountable municipalities to their citizens; Highlighted the positive role of ZELS in given support to its members by providing free software and other accessible web applications to facilitate efficient and effective daily operations of the municipalities; ZELS and Greek National Association of Local Authorities-KEDKE should get involved and to give their positive contribution to the easier and faster solution to one of the "most painful" obstacle of the cooperation between the two countries - the problem listed under bilateral Interim Agreement concluded under the auspices of UN; In order to include more women mayors was concluded on the issue about gender representation in the mayor's structure of the Republic of Macedonia. Although, it was stressed that has been taken into account the gender representation in the candidate composition, but that elected people has been filtered by the voters on general elections. b. Memorandum of Cooperation with SEA ZELS has offered draft text of Memorandum on Cooperation to the Secretariat for European Affairs of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia. Document primarily refers to channeling and purposeful use of expertise and professional capacities on disposal of SEA, in order to help municipalities to better absorb IPA and other European funds. 3. CAPACITY BUILDING OF THE LOCAL STATE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Strengthening the capacities of local government is one of the ZELS strategic objectives, which in the past was systematized surveyed in order to detect the training needs of municipal administration and elected officials. Through appropriate methodology, implemented in three phases, ZELS developed a Training Program , consists of 50 thematic units, distributed in 12 areas (municipal comptences). In 2011, the established ZELS organizational unit - ZELS Training Center (ZTC) trained 1560 local government civil servants, according to the Program. The total number of civil servants in local government, at the end of 2011, was 2792 employees, refering to the Report of the e-register on the number of civil servants and their structure (gender, profession, age, level of education, nationality) produced by the Ministry of Information Society and Administration (MISA). Additional figures about the structure of the municipal administration are: "secretaries of municipalities" based in the city are 15, and in the countryside - 8 persons; heads of departments has 105, and 40 persons as their assistants. Heads of unitss are 342, 588 are aadvisors, 166 with position Senior Associate, 269 associates, and junior associate 219. Most have indepedent officers -680, followed by a senior officer with 167 employees, officers -138 and 55 junior officers. It is notified greater number of men than women, ie 1436(male) vs. 1356(female) civil servants, according to the gender coverage in local government. 4

6 The highest number of officers is aged 25 to 50 years, ie total 1714, followed by people with over 50 years-1061, and only 17 people under the age of 24. In terms of education, 1662 are with a university degree, high school have 855, master 29 pesons, one individual with 300 credits, two people with 240 credits, two with doctorate. According to nationality 2228 are Macedonians, 381 Albanians, Turks-41, Serbs 35, Vlach-21, Roma eight, Boshniaks six and other undeclared. a. Collaboration with MISA in the part on training of the local administration According to the meeting of the Board of ZELS with ministers from the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, held on December 28, 2011, has been realized the request to prepare a balanced overview of trainings and participants of the local administration, in order to registrate civil and public servants who attended the training conducted by ZELS and to be seen in their career records, as well as providing greater efficiency in planning training between the two institutions (ZELS through ZTC conducts specialized targeted training according to the needs of the municipal administration and MISA realize generic trainings). In this regard, ZELS and MISA formed a joint working group composed of representatives of the Training Department of the Ministry of Information Society and Administration and ZTC, and both held two meetings to agree on compatible coordinated joint actions. b. Application of the Law on water management Adequate explanations regarding the implementation of the Law on waters, which applies to municipal jurisdiction, were presented to the municipal administration in charge on issues in the field of environmental protection. About 60 members of the ZELS s Network on Environment were got familiar with the law and at the same time had the opportunity to ask questions and get competent answers from experts from the Ministry of Environment, and related laws that treated wastewater (urban) with emphasis on the relation to the B-IPPC permits and approval of environmental studies, as well as pre-treatment of industrial wastewater, water permits, especially in the field of wells, the preparation of programs and plans for protection against harmful effects on water, marking and regulation of the coastal and bathing zones, municipal responsibilities in water management per river basin areas, obligations and restrictions on the use of groundwater, coastal strip of rivers, lakes and reservoirs for sport and recreation, the obligations of municipalities when issuing permits for water use, water supply facilities and services relevant to municipalities, inspection and administrative procedures in the field of environment. c. Acquisition with authorization for conducting the procedure on alienation and lease of stateowned construction land ZTC organized the fourth training session and examination for municipal administration in obtaining the authorization for conducting the procedure on alienation and lease of state-owned construction land. The training was consisted of theory and practice, ie the legislation related to the implementation of the Law on Construction Land and the use of the software applications (e- Auction and e-registry). Hitherto, 39 municipalities undertook the competence in land management, and 80 municipalities met the legal minimum for authorized persons according to the number of their inhabitants, ie 328 state heads of department and professionals from local government were 5

7 trained and passed the exam, which granted them the right to conduct the procedures on alienation and lease of state-owned construction land Municipal experience has shown that this process is justified, and the practice has shown that municipalities are better managers and planners on local level than the central government. Most of the sold construction plots belong to the individual housing and for industrial purposes. d. Employment and job systematization ZTC, in cooperation with the Ministry of Information Society and Administration (MISA) and the Agency of Administration of the Republic of Macedonia, organized a two-day training on "Making Regulation on organization, Rulebook on jobs systematization and the preparation of the Annual Plan on adequate and equitable representation of communities in the municipal administration". The topics discussed within Module 1, as a part of the broader topic on "Employment and jobs systematization" in the ZELS Annual Training Program, was dedicated to the members of the Network on human resources management. Through practical examples, exercises and practical work, the trainees were introduced to the need of proper preparation of functional analysis prior to making laws for the organization and systematization, as well as the ways of making laws for the organization and systematization in order to improve internal operations. The training ended with a review of the steps and the need for a plan for equitable representation of communities and its implementation in accordance with the apprehended functional analysis. e. Integration of marketing in public relations Integration of marketing in public relations was intended for persons responsible for municipal public relations (ZELS Network) in order to provide them with theoretical and practical knowledge applicable in the daily execution of tasks. Fundamentals of marketing and relationship with the media, municipal marketing strategy development, direct marketing towards municipal strategies (especially public relations strategy) and the role of marketing in improvement of customers services satisfaction were the topics presented and implemented through delivering certain tools - media plan and a press clipping. The participants discussed on the importance of evaluation in order to determine the gaps and weaknesses, and to get to the most adequate supply of quality municipal services for its citizens. Special emphasis was placed on the importance of social responsibility, as a pillar of sustainable development of the municipality, and emphasized the need for the creation of local and regional identity of the municipality. The Promotion was discussed as a part of the marketing mix and the possibilities for integration of advertising, public relations, personal selling and direct marketing in promoting the activities and plans of the local self-government. Special attention was given to the local government communication with citizens in order to raise the image of the municipality. f. Adult education in local development function ZELS Education Network members, composed of persons responsible for education in the municipalities, have gained the knowledge in the opportunities provided by the Law on open civil universities for long-life learning (OGUDU), which regulates the activity, governance, management, financing, monitoring and other matters related to the open civic universities. The responsibilities of the municipalities in the field of adult education provided by the Law on Adult Education, among which are the municipal Council to carry out a needs analysis of the local labor market needs and to present the findings to the Center, educational institues and institutions, the possibility to establish 6

8 adult education institutions, to submit adults educational programs to the Center for the development needs of adult education programs, to make adult education financed by the local government funds, to submit proposals for enrollment policy in adult education to the Ministry of education and sience (MES). This action arises from the need to strengthen the capacity of municipalities in the field of local economic development and expressed need to meet the existing business services by providing adequate opportunities for training, retraining and education of local individuals with the necessary job skills. At the same time, the municipalities looking for new investors are increasingly faced with the need, not only to provide favorable investment conditions and services, but also to offer appropriate educational background and opportunities for their quick and quality educational adaptation, or to upgrade the work skills. 4. ENERGY EFFICIENCY ZELS implemented activities on preparation of an Action Plan for the development of new policies and the promotion of local initiatives to tackle climate change. The five defined priority objectives are: 1. Strengthening capacities for policy development in dealing with climate change; 2. Support local initiatives for the realization of projects activities addressed to climate change (financial aspects); 3. Strengthen awareness for the need of adjustment in accordance with climate change; 4. Provide comprehensive cooperation, integrated coordination and monitoring and control mechanisms; 5. Networking and strengthening international cooperation in the area of meeting the challenges of climate change. The Action Plan provides a framework through which implement local authorities could deal with the risks and impacts of climate change, and in particular will be raised the level of awareness of the need for active involvement in every facet of our living, thus contributing to the reduction of the negative effects that led to climate change, awareness for greater inclusion of this topic in education, community participation (local government) and of individuals in direction for bringing them to proper decision-making process which will mean support in this direction, as well as to increase and strengthen the partnerships and cooperation in this area. 5. PUBLIC RELATIONS AT THE LOCAL LEVEL ZELS made an analysis of the activities of the municipalities in the area of public relations (PR) in order to provide information on existing local PR resources and activities, and the use of PR channels. As a result, 58 municipalities (or 68.2% of the targeted group) provided valuable information on the current status of PR in their local environment. Lack of training for PR is the second most frequently mentioned barrier to PR efforts (57.9%) after the line of insufficient funds (66.7%), but is far more mentioned ZELS service that could be provided to its members in the improvement of their PR activities (89.7%), while brochures, manuals and best practices was placed on the second place (70.7%), and the third was reserved for use of prepared templates (46.6%). Most of the municipalities (77.6%) recognized that the PR person's appointment is aimed at local government communication with citizens in a way that they will regularly reach out to as many of them and for other reasons, such as accountability, security awareness, promotion or image. Experience with providing PR cover, the municipalities explained by answering the question on which media they use in conveying their message to the public. A majority of 94.7% uses Internet, television was next with 86%, newspapers 77.2%,, radio 68.4% and new social media with 64.9%. Billboards are used only 33% of municipalities. The majority believes that providing coverage over 7

9 the internet is the easiest, while through billboards is the most difficult. 77.8% of the municipalities believe that the Internet is very easy to use, followed by the new social media (61.4%), radio (51%) and television (35.4%). About which media are used by the municipalities to disseminate their information, 71.9% said they publish brochures, 57.9% published reports and 50.9% newspapers. 6. INTERETHNIC RELATIONS ZELS and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has launched a Guide to support dispute resolution in multi-ethnic communities and municipalities, which will serve as a tool for municipal governments, local civil society organizations, school administrators and other relevant institutions to address such situations. 8