News


CATEGORY: Socioeconomic development, Public Administration
LOCATION: North Macedonia
START/END: 2003
CONSULTANCY BUDGET: 98,690 €
CLIENT: UNDP
ORIGIN OF FUNDING: UNDP
LDK’s BUDGET SHARE: 100%
STAFF PROVIDED: 6

Type of Services
Provided services included:
- analysis and assessment needs of the local administration in the six municipalities (covering the current administration of the local government, as well as the branch offices of the Ministries, public enterprises, municipal funds and other state institutions represented on local level);
- identification of organizational problems (e.g. internal overlapping, span of control, inappropriate structure to functions, lack of professionalism, lack/inappropriate space and equipment etc.);
- analysis and evaluation of the existing position and job description of the employees in the municipalities and their capacities;
- identification of knowledge and skills that are in insufficient supply at the municipal level, as well as indication of the main areas where further education and training to local government employees should be provided;
- development of a training curriculum to be delivered to local government employees;
- - elaboration of comprehensive outline and scheme of the optimal model for organization, functioning and management for the six pilot municipalities; effective human resources management system for the Municipalities, case planning model and communication; information scheme, to be based on e-governance principles.
Description
Following the adoption of the Law on Local Self-Government in North Macedonia significant amount of legislative and administrative work had been planned and already undertaken, in order to successfully transfer the competencies form central to local governments. The local governments were being called upon to mobilize local resources and to undertake management responsibilities in new sectors. They assumed an expanded governance role, handling more complex administrative and financial issues. Thus, it was imperative for the municipalities to be prepared in a proper manner to exercise the new competencies that will be transferred to them.
The project was a pilot programme under the project MCD/02/003 Capacity Building of Local Governments – Development of Model Municipality, which aimed to asses the municipal organizational structures in six municipalities, namely Veles, Kriva Palanka, Gevgelija, Kicevo, Stip and Resen and provided the Ministry of Local Self Government, the relevant Ministries, ZELS and municipalities with appropriate scientific knowledge and policy advise or an effective restructuring of the municipalities in order for them to become able to exercise successfully the newly transferred competencies.
The assessment aimed at identifying the main gaps and problems in municipalities (such as inappropriate control range, and lack of job descriptions and supervision procedures) and at elaborating a model of organizational structure (taking into account the new competencies to be transferred) that would be useful for the municipalities, as well as the Ministry of Local Self-Government. The assessment also identified the knowledge and skills that were in insufficient supply at the municipal level and served as basis for development of training curriculum to be delivered to local government employees.
The final aspiration of the assessment was to be used for the development of stronger and more efficient local authorities in the piloted municipalities through improvements of the local governments' performance, organizational and functional capacity. The outputs of the assessment provided useful input for a redesigning of the six pilot municipalities to be further supported by other projects through implementation of the proposed models of organization and management structure and delivery of relevant training to Local Government employees.