Filenews 23 November 2024
There is still much to be done in the context of the reform of Local Government, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said today, referring to "weaknesses and distortions" especially in municipalities, in statements on the sidelines of the Pancyprian seminar organized by AKEL in Lefkara, entitled "Local Government: Reform on the ground".
In a statement issued by the Ministry of Interior, Constantinos Ioannou noted that "there is still a lot to be done regarding the reform. Our goal as the Ministry of Interior is the smooth implementation of the reform", he said, and pointed out that "in a timely manner and a year and a half ago, we had identified and expressed our concerns about distortions and weaknesses that existed in the legislative framework, especially regarding municipalities".
Referring to the District Self-Government Organizations (EDAs), the Minister of Interior noted that "for the new Organizations and for the Communities, there are expected to be many benefits from the reform. The new model is certainly better than the previous state of affairs, and we may admit that. But a lot needs to be done, especially at the legislative level, but also at the practical level, to give people what we really promised," he said.
I believe, he continued, that "as far as municipalities are concerned, we had identified the fact about the number of municipalities in time. The mergers had not taken into account economic, geographical and population data, resulting in municipalities such as Strovolos and Pafos, which have been effectively excluded from the reform – they have not been united with others – or municipalities that have been united with small communities and therefore there is no critical mass and economies of scale", said Mr. Ioannou.
In addition, the excessive, as the Minister described it, "number of Deputy Mayors and the fact that they do not have a specific duty list, is another weakness of the legislation. We will be in contact and examine what AKEL and the other parliamentary parties have identified, he added.
"In the context of very good cooperation with all parliamentary parties and with the Chairman of the House Standing Committee on Internal Affairs, we intend to propose concrete changes that will further improve this ambitious reform," he said.
Mr. Ioannou reiterated his conviction that "the consolidation of 46 different Licensing Authorities in the five EDAs, in the long run and when the problems are overcome, will have substantial results, as in the Communities with the operation of Service Clusters. Where weaknesses and distortions are observed is essentially in the municipalities", he concluded.
We have embarked on correcting weaknesses in the TA reform
For municipalities, Mr. Ioannou said, "one of the most important weaknesses is the creation of new entities and the number of new municipalities, which, although reduced by 10, is still large. Since the mergers were not based on population criteria, the expected benefits of the reform will not be for all municipalities to the same intended extent," he noted.
Less, he continued, "will be the benefits to municipalities that have merged with small population communities. Municipalities such as Nicosia, where four large municipalities were merged, will have significant savings in the medium term, will achieve economies of scale and, by extension, citizens will enjoy the multiple benefits of the reform," he said.
He noted that "the example of Nicosia should also apply to other municipalities and the ideal number of municipalities is something that should be reassessed on the basis of geographical, population and economic criteria."
As the Minister of the Interior said, "a second distortion in the Law on Municipalities is the very large number of Deputy Mayors, for whom a horizontal amount of remuneration was provided, even though specific duties and responsibilities are not defined. On our own initiative, we proceeded to amend the provision concerning the remuneration of Deputy Mayors, introducing population criteria, so that the method of remuneration is fairer," he said.
He reiterated that according to his assessment "the level of remuneration of the Deputy Mayors remains high and the way the remuneration is determined should be further elaborated. In addition, we are aware of incidents of confrontation between Mayors and Deputy Mayors either because the latter are sidelined or because they operate outside the framework of his competences," he noted.
The source of the problem, the Minister explained, "is essentially the number of Deputy Mayors that exists in most Municipalities. The Government's position is that a total of 93 Deputy Mayors is an unjustifiably large number and that it is necessary to drastically reduce it by legislation that will come into force from the next term. Personally, and this is the direction in which the options we are working on are moving, I believe that, ideally, we should end up with only one Deputy Mayor per Municipality, who will of course have clear and specific duties and will strengthen the work of each Mayor", he pointed out.
Referring to the District Self-Government Organizations, Mr. Ioannou said that "the big bet for the Ministry of Interior is the normalization of the operation of the licensing sector. The previous fragmentation of development authorisation into 46 authorities, the unevenness in the way regulations and directives are implemented and the cumbersome permitting process were the main factors causing long delays in the examination of applications and limiting the possibilities for effective supervision," he said.
The concentration of licensing competence in the five District Organizations, he continued, "in combination with a series of our other actions and changes aimed at simplifying the permitting process, is expected that, in the long run and once the operation of the EDAs is normalized, it will have significant benefits for development and citizens."
In his address, the Minister also referred to one of the difficulties faced by some of the EDAs, which, as he said, "concerns their staffing. It is accepted that in some of the Organizations the Officers seconded from the central State (Department of Town Planning and District Administrations) and the Municipalities, as well as the Fixed-Term Employees who supported them, could not adequately staff them".
During this period, he continued, "the Council of Ministers approves the Budgets of the Organizations, giving them the opportunity to proceed with their recruitment and permanent staffing, in order to increase their level of response to the needs of citizens."
In addition, he said, "we are working in consultation with the legislative power, the Union of Municipalities and the Ministry of Finance, in order to correct a paradoxical fact that exists in the legislation of the EDAs and has to do with the obligation of the Organizations to grant to the Municipalities 60% of their revenues from licensing, at the same time that the most basic provision of the legislation requires the EDAs to be financially autonomous entities. with reciprocal revenues and without the possibility of state sponsorship".
With our intervention, he said, "we have secured for the Municipalities this amount for 2025 and we are looking for a permanent solution for the future, in order to prevent the creation of a gap in the finances of the Municipalities and the EDAs".
Regarding the reform of Local Government for the Communities, the Minister of Interior expressed the assessment that "for the Communities the long-awaited reform will be beneficial, confirming the necessity of the reform. The creation of Service Complexes, which, according to the legislation, will be staffed with scientific personnel who will undertake their administrative and financial management in cooperation with the Presidents of the Community Councils, will tidy up the way the Communities operate and will put an end to incidents of mismanagement, creating conditions and giving impetus to the development and progress of villages", reported.
In his address, Mr. Ioannou reiterated "the commitment of the Christodoulides Government to the success of this ambitious undertaking. The reform of Local Government is an evolutionary and dynamic process, like any major reform", he said, and noted that "the common goal of all, Government, parties and Local Authorities, is to support by all means the reform, so that it can be crowned with success, mainly for the benefit of citizens".
CNA
