Point system for municipalities
Government drafts plan to link funding to local authorities’ performance in key areas
The government is moving forward with the evaluation of municipalities and the introduction of a system whereby funding will hinge on performance in certain key areas.
The issue of evaluation of municipalities came to prominence during the summer fires, with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis raising the question from the floor of Parliament on August 31 of whether the money local authorities receive is worthwhile.
“I don’t judge local government officials by [party] colors but by work. They will all be evaluated and the resources will depend on the evaluation based on benchmarked indicators that will determine how consistent they are with the environment and their citizens,” he had said.
The prime minister revisited the issue at the September 16 cabinet meeting, reiterating that the government intends to establish performance indicators for local government. At the same time, he announced that “these data will be accessible to citizens so that they will be aware of their functioning.”
To this end, the government has already drafted 12 indicator categories, each of which include several sub-categories. The disbursement of money will be “capped” based on the achievement of targets per category.
An indication of the magnitude of the problem is the fact that, on average over the last five years, not a single municipality has been able to meet its budget by more than 80%, while only 27% have managed to meet it by more than 50%.
As far as investment budgets are concerned, only 1% of municipalities have met more than 50% of their budgets.
The evaluation plan envisioned by the government will be for municipalities and regions. The indicator categories will not only be monitored by the government so that resources are allocated fairly, but will be publicly posted so that citizens can see them and judge.
Other categories include environment and waste management, which will also include the evaluation of the size of parks each municipality has, the length of cycle paths etc.
Education and preschool education is also a crucial indicator of performance. What’s more, conditions for the disabled and welfare will be assessed, including the number of municipal daycare centers, wheelchair ramps and municipal nursing homes, as well as social groceries and soup kitchens.
More broadly, they will be judged on quality of life and the sport and culture made available.
The human resources of each municipality will also be posted, as well as actions for the creation of smart cities, as well as infrastructure and energy consumption.
