Is it possible for cities to drastically change their positions in the City Transparency Ranking just in one year? The answer is yes. This year two cities, Kolomyia and Pokrovsk, got the biggest increase and moved 67 steps up the ranking.
How can others replicate this success? We have prepared 5 tips for you based on these cities experience:
- Increase the transparency of the budget process.
On the official website of the Pokrovsk city council, there is available information on the implementation of the city budget for the last two years and data on the distribution of expenditures. Moreover, there is a budget of the city council and its bodies for 2019 and a regulation that provides for the procedure of budget hearings.
- Tell more about municipal services.
On the website of the Kolomyia city council, you can find biographies of the heads of municipal services and information about their financial rewards. You can find out more about the use of public money by municipal services on the Unified Web-Portal.
- Ensure grants and material assistance transparency.
In Pokrovsk a statement has been made to resolve potential conflicts of interest. In addition, city residents may be present when financing of physical and legal entities and public organizations is discussed and decided. On the city council official website, you can see information about the decisions made.
- Make information in the field of municipal property public.
In Kolomyia, the names, addresses, e-mails and telephones of the heads of bodies dealing with municipal property have been made public as well as the structure of these bodies.
- Develop investment transparency and report on economic development.
The Kolomyia and Pokrovsk city councils have been actively raising transparency in this area. Entrepreneurship support and development programs were launched in the cities, and information on investment sites, information on cooperation with international projects and organizations appeared on the official websites. Indicators of the effectiveness of the city strategy implementation are also in public domain.
More about Pokrovsk: //bit.ly/2TfCJvA
More about Kolomyia: //bit.ly/38YwVxg
The publication was prepared as part of implementation of the UNDP project Civil Society for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights in Ukraine, funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
All opinions, conclusions, or recommendations are the sole responsibility of the authors or editors of the publication and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the United Nations Development Program or other UN agencies.