Best practices in local government award ceremony held in Montenegro

At a ceremony on 26 December the 2013 Best Practices in Local Government in Montenegro Awards were held in Podgorica, organized by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, the Union of Municipalities and the Ministry of Interior.

The event, now in its sixth year, is open to each of the twenty-two local authorities in Montenegro. Authorities who wish to compete present the results of their good practices and innovative solutions to improve services to citizens. This year 11 local governments competed, submitting 16 examples of good practices.

Refik Bojadzic, General Secretary of the Union of Municipalities, spoke at the opening ceremony: “The sharing of experience and innovative solutions is the spirit of the Best Practices Project, which aims to recognize, reward and promote practices that can be applied in other communities. This can help improve the quality of work of local governments, which is our ultimate goal.”

The four thematic topics for this year’s competition targeted the needs of citizens and businesses by providing quality and continuous service. The topics were: preparation and implementation of projects financed from external funds; using resources generated by tourism for local development; innovation in providing utility services; co-operating with NGOs in achieving the strategic objectives of local communities;

Alyn Roberts, speaking on behalf of the OSCE Mission, acknowledged the energy, quality and innovation of each municipality: “The applications signify a clear commitment in developing ideas that are vital to the success in building the confidence of citizens in their local officials. The OSCE Mission will continue to support strong local-government, as we believe that many solutions to the issues facing Montenegro can be found at the local level.”

The municipalities who received awards in specific categories were:

• Ulcinj: Establishment and functioning of the Office for International Co-operation and Projects:
• Niksic: Strengthening capacities for the absorption of EU funds;
• Budva and Kotor: Implementation of Tourist Capacities Cadastre (GIS of municipalities of Budva and Kotor);
• Podgorica: Building a secondary water supply network in rural areas;
• Berane: Improvement of integration of Roma and Egyptians;
• Budva: Strengthening co-operation between civil society and local government;