Filenews 24 April 2022 - by Pambos Charalambous
Please remember that Tala is a village community. It is likely to form a group shown as ΣΤ as shown at the bottom of the page - with Armou, Emba, Koili, Lemba, Marathounda, Mesa Chorio, Mesoghi, Tremithousa and Chlorakas
The filibustering that has been observed over the years in Cyprus regarding the implementation of reforms gives even greater value to the passage of the draft laws of the reform of local government. The new municipalities and clusters will evolve and from 2024 they will have new capabilities and the opportunity to upgrade the services they provide to citizens, but also their way of life.
A new page has been opened for local government in Cyprus by the adoption of the relevant reform by the Parliament, which will be implemented from June 2024.
After years of discussions, controversies and disagreements, the golden formula was found that will put the Local Authorities of Cyprus on a new footing, with an increase in the competences and powers of municipalities and provincial complexes on a wide range of issues.
The new municipalities will be financially independent and administratively independent from the central state, so that they can practice real politics in the local community.
NEW MODEL
The aim of the new model of Local Self-Government is to unite municipalities and communities to create robust and economically viable entities, based on criteria relating to their population, local communities, the economy (employment, employment structure, income, economic viability), their geography and development.
The new entities will have financial autonomy and independence from state sponsorship. Nevertheless, it was ensured that the new municipalities would be awarded €117 million. Annually. Municipalities are obliged to have balanced or surplus budgets, while for the first time a system is introduced that ensures transparency and control, with the obligation to publish on the internet all decisions of municipal councils, budgets, reports of the Auditor General, appointments acts and any expenditure beyond €5,000. At the same time, an Internal Audit Unit will be created in each municipality for all decisions of the municipal council. The new municipalities will also be better controlled by both the state and the Auditor General.
JOBS
Municipalities will be able to create and eliminate jobs, but the possibility of state intervention in cases of budget discrepancies is maintained. In addition, through the bills that were passed, a ceiling was placed on staff costs as a percentage of the total budget expenses.
New responsibilities are also being given from the central administration to the local administration so that they are as close as possible to the citizen. In this context, a large number of competences are transferred from the central state to the municipalities.
Another important change is the transformation of the Union of Municipalities into a Legal Entity of Public Law, something that will give it a stronger role than today.
CAPABILITIES
Through the reform of Local Government, municipalities acquire a number of possibilities. Specifically, they will be able to establish municipal policing with specific responsibilities and powers while they will be able to provide intra-municipal transport for the benefit of citizens. Also, municipalities will be contracting authorities of projects, so that they can easily mature their own development projects, without depending on the priorities and bureaucracy of the state, while school boards are transferred from the ministry to the supervision of local authorities and will operate with separate legislation. At the same time, their role in social policy is strengthened, so that social roofs, kindergartens, nursing homes can operate more effectively, while they will utilize and maintain local infrastructure (parks, green spaces, etc.). In fact, through the reform, municipalities are given the opportunity to impose a special fee, for a specific period of time, for the construction of infrastructure projects following a referendum. For the improvement of the services provided or for development projects, they will be able to use a budget of between €30 million and €50 million. that will result from the mergers, while the change in the way they are financed and the resulting savings will lead in the medium term to increased resources by €60-80 million.
LESS FEES
Much of what has been said above will have direct and indirect benefits for citizens, who, on the basis of the idea and design of the reform, will have to pay less than at present. Another change that concerns the citizens has to do with the building permits, which will be issued at a provincial level, something that refers to further specialization and acceleration of the procedures that have plagued the citizens for years. Finally, from 2024, groups of citizens will be given the right to submit written proposals to the city council for problem solving.
CLUSTERING OF SERVICES
By pooling services to communities, we hope to solve several problems of the past, in terms of serving residents and implementing projects, which are difficult to implement with the existing data, the president of the Union of Communities, Andreas Kitromilidis, told Forbes, since the communities will have their own services, which will serve the needs of the community and residents. The Union of Commons had asked the House to include in the bills concerning the communities some provisions of the reform concerning the municipalities, in order to facilitate the relevant issues and the community councils and now the publication of the final bills is expected.
ADVANTAGES
Regarding the advantages that will result from the reform of the Local Government, Mr. Kitromilidis underlined the increase of the communities' revenues due to the state's subsidies, which will allow the smooth operation of their services and the implementation of additional projects. For the above, meetings will be held with the Minister of Interior. "We are still waiting to have several meetings to see where we end up as communities and how we will operate and what revenue we will have," he noted.
Regarding the benefits that will arise for the citizens, the President of the Union of Commons referred to the proclamations of the Parliament and the government, according to which the reform of the Local Government is done in order to increase the services to the residents, to be close to them and at a lower cost, explaining, at the same time, that the big problem faced by the communities with the current situation concerns the lack of staff, secretarial and technical. The aim is to be able to reduce the cost paid by citizens for the various services, noted Mr. Kitromilidis.
CLOSE TO THE CITIZENS
It is the position of the Union of Communities that the transfer of the administrative staff of the communities to the complex should not affect the service of the needs of the citizens within the community. The office staff should be in the communities themselves for a few hours, Mr. Kitromilidis told us, adding that studies will be made on these issues, i.e. on the staff that will be needed and the way the services should operate, in order to be close to the citizen. The studies will be done by the clusters themselves, which know the needs of each community, with the issue expected to be clarified through meetings that will take place after the publication of the reform. Specifically, a committee consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Finance, the District Administrations, the Union of Municipalities and the Union of Communities will define the timetables of the reform and the way in which they should operate themselves, so that by 2024 all the necessary preparations will have been made.
POPULATION
Based on the registered voters of the existing municipalities, the largest municipality in Cyprus will be the Limassol Municipality (73,057) and the second largest the Nicosia Municipality (72,920). More specifically, in Nicosia district the second largest municipality will be Strovolos (41,168) followed by those of Lakatamia (29,074), Latsia-Yeri (15,921) and South Nicosia-Idalion (12,835).
In the Limassol district the population differences of the rest of the municipalities are not large, with the Municipality of East Limassol recording 19,312 registered voters, the Municipality of West Limassol 18,160 and the Municipality of Polemidia 17,777.
In the district of Larnaka, the homonymous Municipality recorded 41,526 registered voters, the Municipality of Aradippou 12,158, the Municipality of Dromolaxia-Meneou 10,397, the Municipality of Athienou 4,006 and the Municipality of Lefkara 2,950.
In the free province of Famagusta, the Municipality of Paralimni-Deryneia recorded 18,225 voters and the Municipality of Ayia Napa 16,931.
In the Pafos district, the Pafos Municipality gathers 19,406 voters, the Municipality of East Paphos 6,828, the Municipality of Polis Chrysochous 5,035 and the Municipality of West Paphos 4,648.
*From the April issue of Forbes magazine
Please remember that Tala is a village community. It is likely to form a group shown as ΣΤ as shown above - with Armou, Emba, Koili, Lemba, Marathounda, Mesa Chorio, Mesoghi, Tremithousa and Chlorakas.
