LOGOS assists all partner municipalities in the improvement of municipal structures. In order to increase the effectiveness of municipal structure and organization, and to help municipalities to provide public services to citizens throughout their entire territory, LOGOS helped to draft and implement a new sub-municipal regulation.

Strengthening the municipal technical base

At the start of Phase II, the project first invested into strengthening the technical base of the municipal administrations of Klokot – Vrbovac/Kllokot – Vërbovc, Ranilug/Ranillug and Parteš/Partesh which are municipalities that were recently established, and in the municipalities of Novo Brdo/Novobërdë and Štrpce/Shtërpcë which were assessed to lack key materials. It secured the availability of essential working equipments (such as computers, printers, copy machine, etc.) and basic training of relevant specialists for operating it.

Establishment of a “One-Stop Shop”

The Establishment of the One Stop Shops in (Parteš/Partesh, Viti/Vitina and Hani i Elezit/Elezhan)
The LOGOS Bridging Phase 2013 installed the OSS in the partner municipalities. The One Stop Shop improves citizens’ services and provides the services only through this office. Besides, the project establishes a back office / front office system through an electronic network in which all requests are sent to the respective departments in the building from the counter in the One Stop Shop. This software for the electronic network is in accordance with requirements of the Ministry of Local Government Administration. Installing one stop shops in the Kosovo Serb majority municipalities will have a direct positive effect on the improvement of all municipal administrative services. The establishment and functioning of OSS is following carefully the administrative instruction number 2011/03 for OSS of MLGA.

Gender Responsive Budgeting is applied in all partner municipalities
The LOGOS Bridging Phase 2013 focuses on the application of the gender responsive budgeting. the project uses the same approaches and tools developed during the second phase of LOGOS. The results of these activities are integrated into the discussions on the budget for 2014. As part of these activities on GRB the project continuous updating the gender questionnaires that were produced during Phase II.

A “one-stop shop” was inaugurated on the 7^th of June 2011 in the municipality of Kamenicë/Kamenica.
The establishment of this one-stop shop provides a clear example of improvement of the municipal organizational structure. The concept of one-stop shop refers to the establishment of a “single desk” for administrative services available to citizens. Where citizens previously needed to contact one precise municipal official depending on the service/document they needed and therefore walk through the municipal offices, the added value of the one-stop shops is that a multitude of services can be offered at one place.

Even though the list of services to be made available in a one-stop shop was already given by the Ministry of Local Government and Administration, the contributions of LOGOS for the implementation of the one-stop shop were several. It first financed the renovation and furniture of the office and provided the relevant IT equipment.  LOGOS further supported the training of the municipal staff to the new procedures of the one-stop shop. For this purpose, specific trainings were organized and LOGOS arranged visits to municipalities where similar shops are already functioning. Finally, a brochure was developed in order to inform citizens about the services provided by the one-stop shop.

Manual for establishing a one stop shop and good practices from the case of municipality of Kamenicë

Brochure on Municipal Services One-Stop Shop

As a result key municipal services can now be offered to all inhabitants in a single place and the accessibility of administrative services has improved. LOGOS has organized different surveys to measure citizens’ satisfactions with this new structure. Surveys show that more than 90% of the citizens that visited the one-stop shop were satisfied with the quality of services. Citizens furthermore declared to be informed about the procedures and the types of services that are delivered. Surveys further showed that the time needed for procedures has been reduced. Compared to all other municipalities where LOGOS is active, Kamenicë/Kamenica receives the highest scores of overall performance of the municipal administrative structures. Based on this success, the LOGOS Bridging Phase installed One Stop Shops in the new premises of the Kosovo Serb majority municipalities. The project established an electronic network which sends all requests from the counter in the One Stop Shop to the respective departments in the building. The software for this electronic network is in accordance with requirements of the Ministry of Local Government Administration.

Development of a sub-municipal regulation

From the beginning of 2011, LOGOS has been working on the development of a sub-municipal regulation for the municipalities where such legislation was absent. With its legal base in the Law on Local Self-Government, the objective of such a municipal regulation is to formalize consultation mechanisms between the municipal authorities and villages, to provide rules for the composition and to define the possible responsibilities that could be undertaken at the village level.

In order to support municipalities with the drafting of a sub-municipal regulation, LOGOS ensured that broad consultations took place to make the drafting process be as participative as possible. LOGOS first prepared the regulation with municipal commissions. Once a first draft was ready, LOGOS organized meetings with all village representatives of a particular municipality in order to present and discuss the draft. Further consultations were arranged with national level actors, in specific with the legal department of the Ministry of Local Government Administration (MLGA) and the Association of Kosovo Municipalities (AKM). These rounds of consultations allowed for a template regulation that was supported and disseminated Kosovo-wide by the MLGA and AKM.

All partner municipalities have adapted and approved the sub-municipal regulation. In the spring of 2013, village councils were elected in seven partner municipalities. After this process closed, the village leaders were trained by Municipal staff in cooperation with LOGOS.

Support Municipal Public Information

Fully informed and actively involved citizens are of major importance for the effective functioning of municipalities and are a key aspect of a democratic process of decentralization. Based on an assessment made by the Kosovo Local Government Institute (KLGI), LOGOS has observed a general lack of public information and broader outreach from municipalities towards their citizens and a resulting lack of citizens’ participation. In order to promote transparency and thus to better inform and involve citizens in municipal policy-making, LOGOS supports its partner municipalities in the field of public information.

In partnership with a local consultant, LOGOS first advises and provides on-the-job support to municipal public information officers in order for them to develop their competences and better organise their work. LOGOS has also granted 2000 Euros to each of its partner municipalities in 2011. This grant was provided in a pilot scheme of “direct on-budget support” in order to promote flexibility in the use of the funds.

Municipal public information officers are also importantly involved in all other LOGOS activities and play an active role in organizing public consultations/debates on issues that are developed by their respective municipality in partnership with LOGOS.

Relevant press articles

Isak Behluli lider i fshatit Pasjak -­‐ 2LOnline, 14.05.2013
Hani i Elezit bëhet me kryepleq të rinj fshatrash – Koha Ditore, 10.04.2013

Related Pictures

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