Paphos Live 30 June 2024
Cyprus will take the first official step into the new era of Local Government tomorrow, after a marathon journey of two years. The most complex elections in the history of the Republic of Cyprus marked the transition to the new administrative model accompanied by challenges, reactions and preparations for the changes that will be launched as early as the first of July.
As of Monday, the country will consist of 5 District Self-Government Organizations, 20 Municipalities and 30 Community Service Clusters.
The new page in Local Government has been identified as the biggest reform after the General Health System, with concern focused on successful implementation due to its complexity.
The competent authorities, as well as the entire political world, have acknowledged the difficulties and failures of the new system, while changes have already been announced in order to rationalize.
The first 18 months are expected to be crucial for adapting to changes and training staff in the new conditions.
The spotlight is on the new institution of District Self-Government Organizations, as from now 36 urban planning authorities from three different Organizations are united under a single roof. From now on, Water Boards or Local Authorities that provide water supply, Sewerage Boards as well as Boards for the Exploitation of Domestic Waste Disposal or Recovery Sites, as well as development permits, will be included in the EDAs.
As far as the Sewerage and Water Supply Boards are concerned, there are not expected to be any major changes, with the exception of Paphos and the free district of Famagusta where, due to the absence of Water Boards, they will have to be established from the beginning.
Attention has been focused on licensing, with large developments kept under state control. The Ministry of Interior focused on two areas: adequate staffing and simplification of procedures.
For this reason, 85 fixed-term staff were recruited who received appropriate training, which represents an increase of 30%. At the same time, almost all staff were seconded from the district administrations and district offices, as well as most from the Municipal Halls, which caused a storm of reactions. At the same time, with the simplification of procedures, so far out of the 22, 17 have already been completed and implemented, resulting in significant time savings.
The most important thorn so far is that of licensing revenues, as 60% of them will be returned to municipalities, which creates a "hole" of €12 million. For this year this amount is covered, but from September procedures will be activated to start the dialogue on possible changes in order to correct the distortion.
The intention of the Ministry of Interior is over time to identify those that need improvement and put them on the table with the aim of substantially upgrading.
