THE COORDINATION OF THE DECENTRALIZATION PROCESS

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THE COORDINATION OF THE DECENTRALIZATION PROCESS

• Claudia Lung
• Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform
• Central Unit for Public Administration Reform

Conference on Good Governance and Public
Administrative ReformBucharest, 6 December 2007
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Good Governance has many dimensions
Political accountability
Central government
Local governments participation
Effective public sector management
Civil society Media
Private sector interface
Decentralization
Decentralization - the transfer of administrative
and financial competences from the central
government level to the local government level or
to the private sector
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Why decentralization?

• To increase the accountability of local
  governments
• To improve the quality of the public services
  (local governments know better the needs of the
  local communities and are more appropriate to
  comply with, rather than central government)
• To enhance the participation of citizens to the
  decision making process

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Prerequisites for a successful coordination of
the decentralization process

• Strong political will
• Adequate administrative capacity for both central
  and local government
• Active involvement of the institutional
  structures
• Information management
• Common language
• Policy first, legislation later.

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Legal framework EU assistance

• Government Programme 2005-2008, Framework Law on
  decentralization (no.195/2006), Law on local
  public finances (no.273/2006), Law on local
  public administration (no.215/2001).
• PHARE twinning projects Decentralization
  Deconcentration Process led by the Central
  Administration RO2004/IB/OT/01, Strengthening
  Financial Autonomy of Local Governments through
  Continuation of Fiscal Financial
  Decentralization RO2004/IB/OT/02

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Institutional Framework

• Interministerial Technical Committee for
  Decentralization (ITC), Working Groups for
  decentralization at the level of line ministries,
  Technical Secretariat of the ITC
• Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform
  responsible for the technical coordination of the
  decentralization process
• Ministry of Economy and Finance

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MIARs role in decentralization - coordination -
(I)

• Provides expertise to the line ministries in
  elaborating, implementing, monitoring the
  sectorial decentralization strategies
• Develops tools, methodologies, guidelines for the
  efficiently delivery of public services by the
  local governments to the citizens
• Develops the monitoring system of the
  decentralization process

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MIARs role in decentralization - coordination -
(II)

• Strengthening the partnerships with all
  stakeholders involved in the decentralization
  process
• Enhance the cooperation with local governments
  networking
• Capacity building for a successful
  decentralization

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Outputs

• Assignment of competences (state of the art)
• exclusive
• shared
• delegated
• Tools, concepts, guides developed
• City manager concept
• Intercommunity development association
• Integrated County Information Offices
• Self-assessment test for Romanian local
  governments openness and access to information
  
• Comprehensive Budget Manual for local governments

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Next steps

• Reengineering the institutional structures
• Designing new instruments and concepts to support
  the decentralization process
• Coordinating the set-up of cost and quality
  standards
• Developing Performance Indicators for the
  decentralization process.

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• Thank you!
• Claudia Lung
• Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform
• Central Unit for Public Administration Reform
• Claudia.lung_at_mira.gov.ro