Today, at the Gazi Baba town hall, 7 more mayors signed the Declaration of Openness, Accountability and Transparency of Local Self-Government, among which: the mayors of Gazi Baba, Aerodrom, Bogovinje, Vrapchishte, Zhelino, Gjorche Petrov and Karposh.
Namely, this is an initiative of the Metamorphosis Foundation that started three weeks ago by delivering letter of interest to all mayors for signing the Declaration, which covers principles of openness, accountability and transparency. The mayors of Gazi Baba and Karposh municipalities were co-organizers and hosts of the joint event with the aim to express greater support of the proposed initiative.
Read the Declaration here.
The initiative has resulted from the 2016 research, carried out in compliance with special work methodology and indicators. The analysisshowed that the local self-government has a score of only 27% under the indicators on openness, according to which the Republic of Macedonia has the lowest rank in the region.
“The data is concerning, owing to the fact that the measuring was conducted on the basis of provision of access to information that has to be published on municipal websites without prior request, for example, decisions made by municipal Councils, decisions made by mayors, minutes from sessions of municipal Councils, Statute of municipalities and Rules of Procedure of Councils. In this regard, we thought that inviting the mayors to sign this document is the proper thing to do, and by doing so, not only they demonstrate that they have recognized the basic principles in their work, but also that they agree to work in compliance with them. That’s how we marked 9 December, the International Anti-Corruption Day, as well as 10 December, the International Human Rights Day”, said Mr. Bardhyl Jashari, director of Metamorphosis.
The low level of completion of the index on accessibility on the part of municipalities was affected by their insufficient interaction with citizens via social networks, non-publishing of monthly newsletters on the municipalities’ work, the lack of public debates for citizens to address local issues, non-publishing of plans on public consultations with citizens regarding municipal policies as well as the minutes from sessions held with citizens.
“To improve the transparency of Macedonian municipalities, every activity financed by public money must be public, whereas information on these activities must be equally and easily accessible to all citizens, which is our pledge in our work”, highlighted the mayor of Gazi Baba municipality, Mr. Borche Georgievski, who was also this event’s host.
So far, 30 mayors have signed the Declaration:
- Aerodrom
- Bitola
- Bogovinje
- Brvenica
- Butel
- Veles
- Vevchani
- Vrapchishte
- Gazi Baba
- Demir Hisar
- Gjorche Petrov
- Zhelino
- Centar Zhupa
- Ilinden
- Kavadarci
- Karposh
- Kratovo
- Krushevo
- Kumanovo
- Kriva Palanka
- Lozovo
- Makedonski Brod
- Mavrovo and Rostushe
- Radovish
- Ohrid
- Tearce
- Tetovo
- Zelenikovo
- Zrnovci
- Shtip
The Declaration is available for signing until 25 December 2017, and we invite the remaining mayors to put their signatures.