A meeting, which aimed the presentation Transparometri and improvement of the level of transparency, was held in the municipality of Rahovec. This meeting was attended by the Chairman of the Assembly, the Vice Mayor, members of the Municipal Assembly of Rahovec, representatives of the municipal executive and NGOs. During the period January – June 2015, the Municipality of Rahovec has been evaluated with a low level of municipal transparency, attaining only 40.3%  of the overall estimation based on the four pillars of evaluation: Office of the Mayor, the Municipal Assembly, Municipal Finance and Transparency in Consultation with Public (each of the four pillars contains 11 indicators).

At the very beginning of this meeting, Deputy Mayor of Rahovec Mr. Xhemali Haxhimustafa and Chairman of the Municipal Assembly Mr. Nehat Elshani stressed the importance of “Transparometri” and all the indicators used to evaluate transparency, saying that with a little dedication and commitment by the executive and the municipal assembly these shortages can be eliminated. They were willing to improve by emphasizing that the low level of transparency has resulted from negligence by municipal officials. The other directors of the municipality also agreed that these deficits regarding transparency exists but they claimed that all indicators that are missing in the municipality of Rahovec will be taken more seriously in concern to the publication of official documents and activities of the executive and the Municipal Assembly of Rahovec.
According to the members of the municipal assembly the lack of publication of the procurement plan, regulations and decisions in the official website of the Municipality presents a serious problem that affects municipal transparency. According to them, all these documents must also be published in a bulletin or an official gazette which will also be offered to the public. Another dissatisfaction expressed by members of the municipal Assembly was the lack of reporting by the Mayor in the assembly for the first half of this year who is also absent in most of the meetings of the Municipal Assembly and the lack of the answers regarding the questions posed by the assembly to the Executive. They also claimed that citizens should be encouraged to participate in public debates in order to handle their requests and suggestions.

 

Some of KDI’s recommendations for the Rahovec Municipality in terms of increasing the level of transparency were: publication of the six monthly activities report; access to draft regulations and municipal plans; publication of enterprise budgets under supervision; cooperation with Local Community for Transparency; a direct telephone line which is free of charge and organizing weekly meetings with citizens.