The annual budget is considered the most important public finance draft. This is for both the central government and the municipalities. It is the document that reflects the policies for the collection of income, or in other words, how many taxes, duties and fees the citizens will pay and the spending policies, or the directions where the money will be invested.
Due to such high sensitivity, as it directly concerns the welfare of taxpayers, especially for municipalities, where the connection with citizens is closer and more direct, but seen also from the perspective of accountability, the local government budget must subject to public consultations with interest groups.
This is also legally defined.
According to the legal framework in force, municipalities have the obligation to conduct public hearings for the annual and mid-term budget. Specifically, this obligation is defined in Law 139/2015 "On Local Self-Government", where Article 16 states: "Local self-government bodies are obliged to guarantee public participation in the decision-making process" and in Article 18, point 2: "Consultation with the public , in any case, is done according to the way defined in the council regulation, using one of the necessary forms, such as open meetings with residents and interest groups, meetings with specialists, with interested institutions and non-profit organizations or through taking the initiative for the organization of local referendums". Article 15 of the same law stipulates that "Local self-government units guarantee the transparency of their activity to the public.
Every act of the local self-government bodies is published on the official website of the local unit and posted in the places designated by the unit for public announcements".
Also, law no. 68/2017 "On the finances of local self-government" in its article 5 determines that
"Medium-term budget programs and annual local budgets are consulted with the community and interest groups in the local self-government unit".
Has the 2023 draft budget been consulted by the 61 municipalities in the country with citizens and other interest groups?
Adelina Farrici, Executive Director of the Association for Local Autonomy explains that based on these laws, municipalities have held consultations with the public and interest groups for the draft budget of 2023. "All municipalities have held meetings with the public in all administrative units, some from the municipalities have also held meetings on a village and neighborhood basis. Meetings were also held with interest groups, such as business, especially for the consultation of the fiscal package, youth and vulnerable groups. The consultations were held in open spaces, in nature and in closed rooms", says Farrici.
A look at the official websites of the municipalities shows that some of them have announced the calendar for conducting public consultations for the draft budget 2023. But there is no additional information, if these consultations have been conducted. There are no photos from the meetings, nor data on when they took place, with which interest groups or suggestions that may have been made. This with rare exceptions, such as the Municipality of Cologne. But even in this case, the information published on the official website is minimal and superficial, and the photos show only three meetings held, which is an almost negligible number for the discussions of a fundamental draft, such as the budget.
Notifications for consultations are mostly done digitally, but these are combined with physical notifications or posting in public spaces", explains Adelina Farrici, executive director of the Association for Local Self-Government.
"Each municipality has the obligation to conduct public consultations on budget documents and their inclusion in this process. This happens in a certain number of municipalities, such as Shkodra, Korça, Durrësi or other municipalities. However, the announcement of this calendar does not show that the hearing took place (and for this reason we can hardly have an integrated database for the municipalities), that the hearing was effective and included interest groups, that what was suggested by interest groups and citizens were considered", says Merita Toska, local public finance expert.
Even in the case where these consultations may have been carried out, the fact that the vast majority of municipalities have not reflected them on the official websites testifies to a lack of transparency in relation to the citizens or to the fact that they have become superficial and not broadly representative, only to fulfill a legal obligation.
There is no data on the inclusion of suggestions from citizens or other interest groups for the draft budget. In other words, they have been considered and reflected in the final draft, which is passed to the Municipal Council for approval.
"There is a significant percentage of suggestions being taken into consideration, but it should be seen more precisely in the budgets approved by the Councils. It should be emphasized the key role that the Councils have in the process of consulting and approving the budget", explains Farrici.
It is clearly visible that the process of drawing up and approving the draft budget of municipalities in the vast majority of cases takes place without the consultation of citizens and interest groups, those who are the main contributors to this budget and, theoretically, should also be the beneficiaries
This article was produced under ICEDA project, co-financed by the European Union and implemented by Metamorphosis Foundation (North Macedonia), e-Governance Academy (Estonia), Partners Serbia (Serbia), NGO 35mm (Montenegro), Open Data Kosovo (Kosovo) and MJAFT! Movement (Albania).
This article was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of MJAFT! Movement and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.