Citizen participation in decision-making
Citizens of Prizren Municipality are not yet part of local policy-making and their inclusion in the process of consultation is extremely rare or barely formal. So far, instruments of direct democracy, provided in the Law on Local Self-Government and in the Statute of Prizren Municipality, remain an untapped opportunity in the municipality of Prizren. On the other side, Prizren Municipality is demonstrating total incapacity in inclusion of citizens in decision-making through public consultations, public meetings, participatory budgeting and consultancy committees.
So far, the instruments of direct democracy, provided in the Law on Local Self-Government and in the Statute of Prizren Municipality (referendum, citizen initiative, etc.) remain an untapped opportunity in Prizren Municipality. On the other side, the Municipality of Prizren is demonstrating total incapacity in inclusion of citizens in decision-making through public consultations, public meetings, participatory budgeting and consultancy committees.
PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS
Prizren Municipality officials do not accurately comprehend the process of public consultations, whereas there are some who error them with the public meetings of municipality. Research reports on local governance indicate that municipal decision-makers do not always accurately understand the policy-making cycle; and when consulted, the citizens are met for the form alone. Prizren Municipality officials do not adhere to certain fundamental aspects of the organization of public consultations on the acts and municipal decisions. At almost all the cases, the consultations with citizens are held with a constricted group of people invited, with the material introduced during the meeting only, and the conclusion of such meetings after only 2-3 hours of deliberations. Moreover, there is no such instrument for the citizens to address remarks raised during these meetings.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
These meetings are perceived as a requirement stemming from the Law on Local Self-Government and the Statute of the Municipality of Prizren rather than a possibility to pin the ears back on citizens’ demands and remarks and their inclusion in local decision-making. These meetings, as required by the law, are held twice a year and, at this provision, the municipality is being accurate with them. Participation in the public meetings remains in rather low levels, while there is a strong belief among the citizens of Prizren that in such meetings the Municipality tends in inviting the municipal administration employees and constituents of the ruling party in order to avoid being criticised by and eventual dissent with the citizens. UNDP and USAID, in the Mosaic report of 2006, revealed that 23% of the citizens at the Kosovo-level declared that they had knowledge of meetings organised by their respective municipality, whereas in 2009 this figure was much higher – in average, one in three respondents stated they were informed of these meetings, but only 8% of them had taken part. The monitors of the municipality operation and journalists of Prizren have regularly reported for the absence of substantial deliberations during these meetings and the incompetence of municipal officials to address potential remarks raised by the citizens participating.
PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING
Kosovo municipalities are detached from the citizen involvement practices in the discussions and decision-makings on the municipal budget. Participatory budgeting directly engages the citizens in decision-making on the public spending and budgetary priorities. Participatory budgeting processes may be set in territorial (either neighbourhoods or greater) or thematic outlook. The participatory budgeting involves the urban residents and community groups in the discussions and voting of expenditure priorities; submit expenditure proposals and their adoption, and enables citizens in overseeing the process and the results emerged from such type of draft and spending of local budget. Despite the fact that the Mayor of Prizren, during this year, has organized several meetings with the groups of citizens to discuss the coming year’s budget, the extent of the observance on the demands of citizens in the draft of the municipality’s annual budget remains still unclear. The practice of recent years shows that the draft of the municipality’s annual budget depends entirely on the bare will of the Mayor and a tight group of individuals around him.
CONSULTANCY COMMITTEES
The establishment of consultative committees is one of the requirements deriving from the Law on Local Self-Government. MLGA has issued Administrative Instruction on the Consultative Committees with the provision of having citizens and other stakeholders participate in the local decision-making process. So far, Prizren Municipality has proven to be indolent at establishing consultative committees. At the same time, it hasn’t been noted any interest, either from the citizens or civil society, to utilize this civic decision-making mechanism.
