In the municipality hall of Gazi Baba today, another 7 mayors signed the Declaration on openness, accountability and transparency of the local self-government: the mayors of Gazi Baba, Aerodrom, Bogovinje, Vrapciste, Zelino, Gjorce Petrov and Karpos.
Namely, it is an initiative of Metamorphosis, which began three weeks ago by submitting a letter of interest for signing the Declaration, which contains principles of openness, transparency.
The mayors of the municipality of Gazi Baba and the municipality of Karposh were co-organizers and hosts of the joint event in order to express greater support for the proposed initiative.
The initiative is the result of a research conducted in 2016, within the ACTION SEE project, according to a specific working methodology and indicators. The Аnalysis found that the Republic of Macedonia is at the lowest level of the countries in the region.
“This data is worrisome given that the measurement was done to provide access to information that should be published on municipal websites without being requested, such as decisions taken by Councils of Municipalities, decisions made by mayors, transcripts from the sessions of the Municipal Councils, the Statute of the Municipalities and the Rules of Procedure of the Councils. Within this framework, we thought it appropriate to invite mayors in the past three weeks to sign a document, which will not only demonstrate that they recognized the basic principles of their work, but also agreed to work on them. In that way, we marked the 9-th of December – Day for the fight against corruption, as well as 10-th of December – International Human Rights Day”, stressed Mr. Bardhyl Jashari, director of Metamorphosis.
The low fulfillment of the index of accessibility by the municipalities was influenced by their insufficient interaction with the citizens through social networks, the failure to announce monthly informers for the citizens about the work of the municipalities, as well as the lack of public debates for the citizens on issues of local significance, for public consultations with citizens on municipal policies and minutes of held meetings with citizens.
The principle of transparency, in turn, involves the publication of information on the organizational structure, the budget for work and publication and the access to public procurement information.
“In order to improve the transparency of the Macedonian municipalities, any activity funded with public money must be public, and the information on these activities must be equally and easily accessible for all citizens, which we stand for in our work”, said the mayor of the municipality Gazi Baba, Borche Georgievski, as host of the event.
So far, 30 mayors have signed the Declaration from the following municipalities:
1. Aherdrom
2. Bitola
3. Bogovinje
4. Brvenica
5. Butel
6. Veles
7. Vevcani
8. Vrapchishte
9. Gazi Baba
10. Demir Hisar
11. Gjorce Petrov
12. Zhelino
13. Zhupa
14. Ilinden
15. Kavadarci
16. Karposh
17. Kratovo
18. Krushevo
19. Kumanovo
20. Kriva Palanka
21. Lozovo
22. Makedonski Brod
23. Mavrovo and Rostushe
24. Radovish
25. Ohrid
26. Tearce
27. Tetovo
28. Zelenikovo
29. Zrnovci
30. Stip
The Declaration remains open for signing by December 25, 2017 and we invite other mayors to sign it.