Cooperazione & Relazioni internazionali

Serbia: Local government fails in citizen report card

Over 1 thousand citizens have taken to the streets to test the performance of their local government. The result? Public institutions fail to meet the expectations of the citizens they serve

di Staff

 

During a three-day participative street action organized by the Civil Society Promotion Centre the citizens of Sarajevo evaluated the performance of their local cantonal government. Its score? A very low average of 1.73 out of 5 for its work in seven public policy areas.

During the street action, the citizens graded the performance of their elected representatives on a scale of one to five in seven fields: budget spending, healthcare, education, employment, distribution of public funds, care of elderly and ill people and distribution of local information.

The lowest grade, 1.51, was awarded to the work carried out by the government in the employment sector, while the highest grade, a mere 1.95, was given for adequate distribution of local information. The results, however, may not be indicative of the true result, as 452 of the 1,590 participants actually awarded their performance with a zero, not a one.


The results of the Civil Society Promotion Centre’s campaign, together with an action plan for the cantonal government, will be presented to the relevant institutions and NGOs.

 

Meanwhile, the Civil Initiatives Centres has made public the results of the monitoring of performance of cantonal institutions in the Federation of Bosnia Herzegovina over the course of the first four months of the year. The trends show a positive improvement since 2007.


Compared to last year, most cantons adopted working programmes and budgets within the legal deadlines and have increased the number of measures related to civic platforms and the rate of implementation of legislation.

CCI, however, comments that it is not enough, as the nature of such changes is temporary and they have not focused on improving the livelihoods of citizens.

CCI representatives invited the competent authorities in cantonal governments and parliaments to put more pressure on those sectors of government that continue to act irresponsibly, and to focus their efforts on finding solutions to priority problems.


“The CCI will continue to monitor and report on the work of the Federation’s government. It will make public all instances of irresponsible action by individual officials or political parties”said Ivica Cavar, coordinator of the CCI’s monitoring and evaluation team.


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