0w2010 01 RESUM EJECUTIVO 03 DEFcarta ang
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Second Global Report on Decentralization and Local Democracy. GOLD 2010 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Development of the inter-municipal cooperation for better services provided. Inter-municipal cooperation is an effective instrument to reduce the costs associated with the provision of municipal services taking advantage of the available economies of scale, while at the same time allowing individual local selfgovernments to retain control over functions. The following country specific suggestions are also provided: Of all the countries under review, Kazakhstan is the only country that officially has no local self-governments. The introduction of local self-government would be the main challenge in this country; however this issue has not been on the national agenda. Belarus is an example of a country where local self-government formally exists, but its powers are very limited. The republic would do well to further develop its local authorities. Given political realities, one can assume that Belarus would benefit from the experience of other Eurasian countries where bodies of local power, albeit subordinate to the central government, nevertheless, have legally assigned responsibilities and own revenue sources. Armenia needs clear legislation on financing delegated responsibilities. Municipalities also need additional support in accessing financial markets; while they are allowed access by law, in practice this has yet to become effectively implemented. Moldova needs to make intergovernmental fiscal relations between raions and settlements in their territory more transparent and formula-driven. Settlements should receive more expenditure
and revenue autonomy to allow them to provide effective services. In Ukraine, the reform agenda has been determined. The first challenge will be the implementation of this reform, aimed at giving a greater role to local self-governments. Among the reforms on this agenda are: increasing local government autonomy from central government, clear assignment of expenditure responsibilities, introduction, at the local level, of real estate tax (assessed to the current market value), and improvement of the transfer allocation formula. In Russia, there is a need to assign own taxes to raion governments and introduce the real estate tax. There is also a strong need for better local tax administration and collection. Tax exemptions from local taxes established in the federal legislation should be eliminated. It is difficult to predict the local self-government development in Kyrgyzstan, but with the current political instability, the central government can hardly be interested in strengthening the local government level. The internal problems of Georgia are also not a good environment for building strong local governments. Despite the fact that local governments in Eurasia still do not have the same powers as their counterparts in Europe or North America, they have, since the early 90's, made significant progress on the road towards decentralization. We hope that the latest centralization trends in most Eurasian countries are temporary and that this progress can continue in the future.
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