4.1 Public Policy Considerations
It is extremely important to take seriously the decen-tralization of power, as it carries potential disadvan-tages and risks that should not be ignored. The greater scope for autonomous local decision-making directly affects decisions at the national level. As well, local in-terests may fundamentally diverge from a society-wide concept of “public interest.”
Effective public sector reform requires a skilled cadre of people who are well educated and adequately paid. The majority of Armenian local governmental bodies are composed of non-professionals, who tend not to “think globally and act locally.” Moreover, the real wages of government employees have fallen dra-matically since 1990, and training opportunities are limited. One suggested means of combating corrup-tion and bribe-taking is increasing the salaries of local officials.
The local legal framework of Armenia has changed dramatically in recent years. In most cases, this has brought about significant improvements in the legal environment. At the same time, it should be recog-nized that these changes also have created a sense of legal uncertainty with respect to the interpretation and
Figure 17.
Correspondence among Level of Satisfaction and Budget Possibilities
Administrative
and fiscal issues Service delivery Public participation
Client satisfaction
application of new laws and regulations. Many of the inconsistencies among laws, and also implementation difficulties, result from the lack of public participation in decision-making and rule-making. There is a need to recognize that passing laws does not make them reality.
The relevant executive authorities as well as the public need to develop a clear understanding of the effect laws will have on their daily life.
Along with the specific areas addressed below, this study suggests:
• the creation of external and internal control mecha-nisms to provide for transparency and account-ability;
• the clear distribution of responsibilities among the different levels of public administration; and
• the introduction of new public finance resources that are consistent with these control mechanisms.
Increase accountability. Despite efforts to increase accountability in local government by means of the Treasury and budget laws, enterprises and municipal service providers appear to be outside overall manage-ment system, and are often not held accountable. Local governments are held accountable for services provided by private enterprises. The interference of the central government in the provision of services clearly reduces the ability of LGUs to perform their mandatory duties and to provide adequate services.
Raise the standards of public services. The cur-rent government is attempting to develop policies for improving governance in communities, raising the standards of public services, and making them more responsive to users. The overall goal is to clearly define the roles, responsibilities, and accountability of both the central and local government in the provision of services. As part of the commitment to responsive pub-lic services, local governmental officials must identify problems and listen to constituents’ concerns. It is very important to involve different socioeconomic groups and to meet their needs through, for instance, forming partnerships and establishing one-stop-shops.
Implement a developed set of information techno-logies. The Community Financial Officers Association has formulated formal information channels of interac-tion between the government and citizens. Such new channels in Armenia offer obvious potential support for reforms and for the development of local
com-munities. Their role should not be seen as passive:
government information services have an important responsibility to foster interest in and awareness of public issues, and to improve public understanding of policy issues. Information services should be pro-active in presenting information which is accurate, clear, and understandable.
Through the Encouraging Community Develop-ment Project, thirty-one communities have received 51 contemporary computer centers. The goal is to equip all communities nationwide with computers and informa-tion technology. This involves creating informainforma-tional databases and on-line administrative services, along with demographic surveys. The project has included the training of specialists from local administrative bod-ies. This project was particularly important prior to the Presidential and National Assembly elections in 2003, as it contributed to the development of voting lists.
Work with focus groups. Focus groups can contrib-ute to improving the level of satisfaction with public administration and service delivery. An important role is played by non-governmental organizations, groups of experts, and foreign/international organizations.
For the Community Financial Officers Association, work in focus groups (of pensioners, young citizens, and so forth) has proved to be extremely informative.
The government of Armenia should use this method to access a particularly vulnerable social group: refugees.
Persons displaced by the conflict in Nagorno-Karabagh continue to lack shelter and full rights as citizens, as well as access to public services and local authorities.
In short, they have specific needs which must be ad-dressed. While amendments to the electoral code in 2000 granted refugees the right to vote, many remain disenfranchised. The government should be proactive in accessing refugees; rural administrations will require support from NGOs, foreign/international organiza-tions, urban areas, and the central government in these matters.
4.2 Recommendations
Admittedly, laws do provide a rudimentary frame-work for limited administrative and fiscal decentrali-zation and the regulation of financial issues relating to local government administration. Modifications are needed, however, to enhance the ability of local
government bodies to perform as viable democratic institutions. These modifications include:
• Developing a unified approach to reforming the public administration system, which reflects the mandates of various levels of government.
• Promoting openness and transparency in order to combat corruption. This involves raising the legal awareness of citizens through civil institutions and the media. Transparency and openness can be ac-complished by broadening and deepening public participation, both in policy and “street level” issues.
• Protecting citizens and civil servants from unwar-ranted accusations, and mediating (within reason) personal information made available to the public.
• Ensuring managerial autonomy of administrative units and agencies, as well as of individual officials, in order to allow them to perform their duties effectively and efficiently. That said, duties must be carried out not only in accordance with estab-lished guidelines or programmatic provisions, but also in full compliance with the legal order.
Also, this study suggests equipping local govern-mental officials with skills they lack, by using different training methods and replacing some older public employees, in order to make use of new, precise skills essential for better governance.
4.3 Conclusions
With the municipal reform issued in 1996, Armenia has taken important steps toward reconstructing the political and administrative system, decentralizing state functions, and constructing municipal autonomy.
However, in spite of a number of already introduced legal and institutional reforms, communities are not yet able to execute their tasks adequately. Foreign/
international and local projects aim to support municipal institutions in fulfilling these tasks, through consulting, trainings, technical assistance, and so forth. Reforms are undertaken with the view to balance the need for public revenue and the need to promote community development, as well as to promote transparency and to develop new administrative methods.
Assuming that local self-governments achieve an appropriate degree of autonomy with regard to
ad-ministrative issues, it is certainly important to have in place mechanisms to hold decision-makers accountable, both to their constituents and to other levels of govern-ment. Accountability requires access to information.
Mechanisms to ensure access to information include public statements of short and medium-term objectives, a transparent and inclusive budget process, accurate and comprehensive administrative reporting on outcomes, and an independent media to assist in the public dis-semination of the information.
Research analysis has shown that in small commu-nities, local authorities are more likely to try to develop techniques for learning citizens’ preferences. In smaller local government units, there are more opportunities for building close links between authorities and citizens.
However, fiscal problems often increase the level of administrative abuses, as administrative abuses tend to stem from a lack of financial resources. This suggests a need to improve the administrative-territorial division of Armenia, by merging very small communities into larger ones, with more effective public administration and service delivery.
Based on the current situation in Armenia, and comparing it with public administration in more de-veloped countries, it is possible to conclude that local self-governmental bodies in the former are relatively ineffective as governmental entities, and are hampered by lack a of clear legal authority and limited fiscal capac-ity. Local governments must be restructured to enable local democracy. For public administration to function effectively, the following are necessary:
• predictability of policies and government stability;
• integrity of public officials and low levels of cor-ruption;
• secure and well-defined property rights;
• decentralization of powers to promote local de-mocracy;
• effective processes for fiscal control, including budgeting and financial reporting; and
• protection of political and civil liberties, including democratic elections, freedom of expression, op-portunities to form civic organizations, and physi-cal mobility.
This study promotes the notion that local democ-racy is fundamental for the well being of individuals
and communities. The European Charter of Local Self- Government, drawn up by the Council of Europe, was the first multilateral legal instrument to define the fun-damental principles of local autonomy. It safeguards the rights of those government authorities that are closest to the citizen, and grants citizens the opportunity to participate effectively in local government institutions
that affect their everyday lives. Indeed, local authori-ties with authentic responsibiliauthori-ties can serve citizens in a way that is effective and meaningful. Meanwhile, the right of citizens to participate in public affairs is a central democratic principle, and this right can be most directly exercised at the local level.
NOTES
1 Taken from a United Nation Development Program (UNDP), World Bank (WB), and Local Government and Public Service Initiative (LGI) policy paper. “Enhancing Capacities of Local Authorities” South Caucasus Regional Program.
2 See Edwin Rekosh. 2003. “Remedies to Administrative Abuses.” Local Government Brief. Summer 2003. Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative, Open Society Institute–Budapest. http://lgi.osi.hu/publications_datasheet.php?id=241. The definition was developed collaboratively by Edwin Rekosh, PILI, and fellows of the LGI Fellowship Program, 2002–2003, Administrative Remedies at the Local Government Level.
3 This index is based on country surveys and considers: the unpredictability of laws and policies, the stability of government, the security of property, the reliability of the judiciary, the extent to which extra payments must be made for services, and the time spent negotiating. See World Bank. 1997. The World Development Report 1997: The Role of the State. Oxford University Press.
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