Author: Elsa Dautaj
Resul Baleta and other residents of the village of Gur i Bardhë were called by the Municipality of Mati to public consultations, two years after the Municipal Council of Mati decided to build a hydroelectric plant in the village. The public consultation, he confesses, took place in 2019 and despite the fact that 95 percent of the participants were against the project, they are still afraid that the works could start from day to day.
The case of the residents of Guri Bardhë is one of dozens of cases of municipalities in the country, where decisions related to infrastructure, the budget, historical objects, or even an increase in the price of transport tickets are sealed without first consulting the taxpayers, the residents of the city.
Public consultations, an important act for the transparency of the local government, represent one of the forms that makes the citizens part of the decision-making, but it turns out that they are realized only as a procedure and formally.
Although Covid-19 moved all activity from physical to online, not even the pandemic made the municipalities use the website as official information for citizens, but on the contrary, during the months of February-July 2020, it turned into an excuse not to conduct public consultations with citizens and interest groups.
Law no. 139/2015, article 16 on local self-government and law no. 146/2014 on Public Notification and Consultation obliges municipalities to notify and invite citizens to the municipality's public consultations. But, from a conducted monitoring, it appears that they are reluctant to inform the public about the place, time and project proposal for public consultations, and they also do not inform about the process of how they approve the various projects in order to provide a better life for the community. This law has been violated for many years and moreover during Covid-19.
For this article, the official websites of 61 municipalities were monitored, during July 1-7, 2021, for the period February-July 2020, to see if the municipalities have published notices for public consultations and if they have published detailed information for the purpose of informing what happened during the public consultation. But both of these legal obligations have been violated by 45 Municipalities.
Formally, all municipalities on their official website have created a space entitled "Public Consultations", but this space is empty, or with announcements published outside the legal deadline or with posts from 2 or 3 years ago. During monitoring, we had to try the search option, since the Public Consultations option was almost always empty.
According to the monitoring we carried out, it turns out that: 45 municipalities do not notify citizens and interest groups about public consultations and do not post the meetings on the website; only 5 municipalities notify citizens and interest groups of public consultations and post the meetings on the website. 3 Although the municipality tried to publish the notice for the public consultation, it was in violation of the law, since the notice was made only 1 day before the public consultation or after, so it was only made as a notification procedure on the website; 7 websites during the monitoring period were found to have problems and were not opened and 1 Municipality does not have a website.
Even though we are in the month of August 2021, we only see announcements and posts from published meetings in 5 municipalities, Durrës, Shkodër, Tropoja, Ura Vajgurore and Vau i Dejës. 45 Municipalities, including large municipalities such as: Tirana, Elbasan, Vlorë, Berat, Korçë, Fier, Kukës, Gjirokastër, Dibër, Lushnje, Përmet, Sarandë, Tepelën, etc., do not notify citizens and interest groups about public consultations and do not post meetings on the website.
Law No. 146/2014 article 17 point 2 on Public Notification and Consultation clearly specifies that the institution must notify citizens about the project and be given no less than 20 working days before the public consultation. Article 17 point 2, "Interested parties, invited to participate in public meetings, are given the necessary time for preparation. In any case, they are informed no less than 20 working days before the public meeting, making available copies of the draft act to be discussed". But in fact, the municipalities announce the consultations 24 hours before or one day late.
Experts: Lack of transparency limits citizens' participation in decision-making
But are municipalities hindering transparency with the public by working this way? Are they excluding citizens from decision-making? According to Evelina Azizaj, Program Manager for Local Governance and Integrated Development in IDM, the lack of transparency limits citizens' participation in decision-making.Municipalities are obliged to announce the place, date, time and act for consultation as well as substantive information about the act. Also, after the consultations, the minutes of the public hearing must be published. This lack of information undoubtedly limits the participation of the community and interest groups to participate in public hearings and give their thoughts and opinions. In fact, local decision-making naturally requires consultation with the public in order to improve the decisions that are made", She says.
Agron Haxhimali, executive director of the Association of Municipalities of Albania, describes technology as an ease in communicating with citizens, which helps in informing citizens and he emphasizes that notifications should be accessible. "Municipalities have a legal obligation to be transparent and advertise their announcements on official websites. Municipalities must also have a strategic plan for transparency and communication, and this plan must be presented to anyone interested in participating. Municipalities for important issues such as the budget, investments, taxes and fees, or even notification of job vacancies and any notification of a meeting of the municipal council and its decision, should be made available to the citizens.", he says
Experts list cases when public consultations are also done formally. "Sometimes citizens are only interested in some issues and not all. If you talk to citizens and interest groups, they will show that municipalities hold meetings with invited citizens on the basis of recognition or political affiliation. The halls are filled with militants. Or consultations are done formally", says Evelina Azizaj.
From official communication to that through social networks...
The website is the most official form of communication of the municipality, but some municipalities also prefer to use Facebook for various announcements and promotions. We randomly checked the Facebook pages of some municipalities and the same problem was observed with the violation of the deadline and notification without any supporting documents. The notices were published one day after the public consultation had ended and the concrete case is as follows with the Municipality of Mat, Memaliaj and Devoll.
On the other hand, experts also consider social media as a channel without financial costs, where municipalities can easily invite citizens to decision-making processes.
"There are many avenues you can take to increase participation and communicate with citizens. For example, online meetings or free social media are channels that simply enable an open communicative approach, even if it is one-sided. It is enough for the municipality to speak, tell the citizens its plans and listen to them", says Agron Haxhimali.
Faced with this data, experts comment on it as a lack of transparency.
"It is carelessness, a lack of organizational culture to communicate. So they see it as a non-priority issue in relation to the many problems that municipalities have with public and administrative Services. This is where municipalities mainly focus. I think that communication and transparency should become part of the behavior and culture of the municipality", says Agron Haxhimali.
"Despite the indifference of citizens and their partial interest in only some issues, municipalities must ensure transparency in relation to public consultation, as part of their legal obligations. Transparency is the first step to increase citizen participation and further the interaction of citizens with the municipality. An increased and positive interaction is likely to positively affect citizens' trust in the municipality", says Evelina Azizaj.
Even though they are not heard, citizens hesitate to complain...
The Office of the Commissioner for the Right to Information and Protection of Personal Data informs that over the years it has received complaints from citizens about the violation of the right to public notification and consultation, but in recent years these complaints have been decreasing.
"During the years 2015-2016, the Office of the Commissioner for the Right to Information and Protection of Personal Data received 2 complaints with the object "Violation of the right to public notice and consultation"; for the years 2017-2018, the Commissioner's Office received 8 complaints; while for the years 2019-2021, the Commissioner's Office has not received any complaint with the object "Violation of the right to public notification and consultation".
In relation to the decision-making of the Commissioner's Office, for complaints against local self-government units, the Commissioner's Office has accepted the complaint against Shkodër Municipality, approving the Decision no. 54, dated 21.03.2017.
Agron Haxhimali tells us some factors that influence citizens to have no interest in participating in decision-making. "Citizen interest decreases if they see that the organization is closed, and they have to spend time to find out what happens in the municipality. But today everyone has limited time, and if you want to involve citizens in decision-making, the municipalities themselves must create opportunities for you. Most of them have these possibilities. The rest of the medium-sized and small municipalities face problems related to the lack of human resources, communication specialists, lack of technology and its knowledge, etc. But the problem remains the way the municipality approaches transparency, how much vision and will it has".
Law of 2014 no. 146/2014 "On public notification and consultation" provides, among other things, that municipalities must place the draft acts on the official website for public consultation and not only there, but they can also use the official website www.konsultimipublik.gov.al. But the last updates on this page refer only to the ministries and there is no data for the country's municipalities.
Beyond the obligations stemming from the law and the need for transparency towards citizens, municipalities refuse to listen to them and make them part of their decisions, even when they seal the implementation of projects worth millions of euros, for which residents are often between two choices : to shrug or rise in protest.
