Description
The project „Active Citizenship for Transparent Local Governance” will be implemented at national level by the Center for Public Policy (applicant) and 4 partner NGOs. The project addresses development needs identified at national level as a consequence of the lack of proactive transparency measures regarding the local elected officials’ annual reports. General objective: promoting and supporting active citizenship for improving local public policy. The project aims at increasing the number of pro-active transparency measures adopted by local public authorities in Romania as a result of directly involving 90 citizens in national advocacy campaigns, 700 citizens in promoting and supporting the public campaigns online, 1.575 local elected officials who will benefit from public policy recommendations regarding improvements in public authorities regulations. Indirect beneficiaries: 50.000 Romanian citizens who will have access to local officials activity reports as an information source for electoral decisions regarding the local elections in 2016.
Summary of project results
Previous studies initiated by Public Policies Center (CENPO) found that local elected officials, mainly the county councillors, do not assume measures of transparency and responsibility towards the citizens who elected them. In the context in which county councils manage 18% of the total budget of all local administrative bodies and are as well one of the main service providers, their activity is considered to be very relevant to citizens and they should be more accountable and close to their constituents. The main objective of the project was to promote and support active citizenship and citizens' involvement in making county councillors more accountable, which in turn will lead to better public policy on transparency issues. CENPO and its partners analysed first annual reports' accessibility on the county councils' websites. The study which followed showed that approximately 60% of the mandatory annual reports are not available to the public and when they are available they fail to provide relevant data on councillors’ activity throughout the year. In light of these results, a national advocacy campaign was launched, involving 100 citizens who directly requested the annual reports of their county councillors or addressed questions pertaining to community issues to the local councillors in Bucharest. Also, the experts within the project team analysed and formulated specific recommendations for the county councils and local councils in Bucharest, in order for them to change their procedures and include clearer regulations regarding councillors’ annual reports. Two of these local authorities already included, in the project period, regulations that made compulsory for the annual reports to be published on the website (Buzau County Council) or that the audience schedule and contact information of the local councillors should be published on the website (General Local Council of Bucharest). Moreover, two partnership agreements have been signed with two county councils, in order to implement future projects on transparency and accountability measures.
Summary of bilateral results