Encouraging local government accountability through increased information

On 16 February 2012, EMA in collaboration with the Municipality of Vlora organized a discussion forum on “Encouraging local government accountability through increased information”. This event was held in the framework of the project “Encouraging local government accountability: Support to the Municipality of Vlora to improve public information” supported by World Bank and British Council. The forum was attended by representatives of the public administration of the Municipality of Vlora, and especially by the staff of those departments which are responsible for public relations and other relevant structures. Other participants included representatives from non-profit organizations and interest groups.

The forum was opened by welcome speech of Mr. Arben Beqiraj, Vice chairman of the Municipality of Vlora, who emphasised the positive cooperation with EMA. During his speech Mr. Beqiraj presented the work done so far from the Municipality of Vlora on how the communication between the municipal administration in one hand and community as well as different interest groups on the other one is realized in practice. Also he mentioned that the Municipality of Vlora is applying different instruments to inform the public such as brochures and leaflets. Another important source of information is the official webpage, which is enriched year after year based on suggestions addressed by the public opinion and interest groups.

Project Coordinator of the British Council, Ms. Marsela Çela during her speech described the role of the program “Development Marketplace” in support of local government and civil society. She pointed out that this program intends to promote public transparency and contribute to enhancing the good governance at both levels. She underlined that currently the British Council has selected some organizations that throughout their initiatives aims to come closer to local community and their needs as well as to increase transparency of local government towards public.

Mr. Gledis Gjipali, Executive Director of EMA presented the key findings and the steps undertaken so far in the framework of this project. Some of the recommendations presented by him were related with: strengthening the cooperation between media and local government; expanding the competences of the Department of the Public Relations in the information flow; and the use of different software and electronics to increase the effectiveness of the municipality’s structures in the information circulation process.

Part of this project, is an electronic system for the information flow which is currently implemented in the Municipality of Vlora. This system will realize the convert of the existing procedure from hard copy to electronic file format, an important part of which is the electronic storage of this information. During the event several specialists were introduced with the way how this system operates and discussed some of their concerns regarding its use.

The Municipality of Vlora together with EMA are exploring a variety of instruments to ensure a greater transparency of the Municipality’s activities and to increase access to information of interested stakeholders through a better utilization of available resources. The proposed program for circulating and archiving information in the Municipality of Vlora which was introduced during the event is already in the final stage of its preparation.