Tbilisi. Non-Governmental Organizations released a statement. "As it is known, the inter-fractional group was set up on election issues by the December 26, 2013 order of the Chairman of the Parliament. It aims preparation of amendments on self-governance elections to the Organic Law of Georgia "Election Code” and other laws and their submission to the Parliament.  The inter-fractional group already held its first working meeting and NGOs, parliamentary and non-parliamentary political parties had opportunity to participate.  ...We think that amendment of the current election system is the priority for the local self-governance elections. In particular, the new system should ensure conduct of fair election and proportional transfer of voters’ will in mandates", says the statement. For the full text Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia has released comments on the draft law - the "Local Self-Government Code". The document Source: nala.ge

Guria. The Union of Democratic Development of Georgia and the Mediators’ Association of Guria have interviewed the population of Ozurgeti town in November-December 2013, aimed at examining the activities of the water supplying organization in Ozurgeti – "United Water Supply Company of Georgia” LLC, assessing the level of satisfaction of the Ozurgeti water users with its services, and comparing the fulfillment of obligations undertaken by this company with the factually existing situation. According to the official data of the Water Supply Company, total of 4.788 subscribers are registered in the Ozurgeti Service Center. Out of these, 634 customers were interviewed (i.e. 13.2% of total number of subscribers), who receive water from the "United Water Supply Company”. In view of specifics of the population poll and for the purposes of a comparative analysis, separate interviews were conducted with customers living in multi-apartment buildings and those residing in private houses. Such differentiation was triggered by a variety of services provided to them in the water supply sector.Interviewing has identified the most essential and key problems of the Ozurgeti population in the water supply sector: 1) subscribers are unaware of the water supply time-table, which is mostly undetermined; 2) pressuring the water supplied to subscribes is problematic, especially in multi-storey residential houses (Ozurgeti-based subscribers intensely use special pressure empowering pumps, which obviously increases their monthly utility fees); 3) the issue of water quality is very acute, which, in the opinion of majority of the interviewed subscribers is not safe for health; 4) fee for the utilized water is not adequate and proportionate to the service offered by the Water Supply Company to its subscribers; 5) there is no practice of contractual regulation of relations between the supplier of drinking water and the customers, which would write out the rights and obligations of each party ...The water customer opinion poll was carried out by the "East-West Management Institute” (EWMI) under the aegis of the G-PAC Program, funded as part of the project "Union for Protecting the Water Customer Rights”, implemented by the Union of Democratic Development of Georgia together with the "Mediators’ Association of Guria”. Implementation of this program became possible by assistance of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Adjara. The Citizens' Advisory Council functioning with the Sakrebulo of the self-governing city Batumi has organized a meeting with the "Batumi Motor Transport" on January 16 in the Batumi Civic Engagement Center. Local population and media and CSO representatives have attended the meeting.Meeting participants were informed about the services offered by the "Batumi Motor Transport" to customers. Several problematic issues were raised at the meeting, mainly concerning the mini-bus lines, as well as the planned acquisition of buses in 2014 by the "Batumi Motor Transport" LLC, which will be also accessible to persons with disabilities. According to the administration's representatives, special attention will be paid in 2014 to the expansion of the "Batumi Cycling" and promotion of use of ecologically clean transport.

Tbilisi. Recently budgeting process in Tbilisi has become the focus of public attention. Georgian Young Lawyers' Association: "Even though we are now in a new budgeting year, this year’s budget has not yet been approved which raises a number of questions. We would like to provide public with answers to these questions from applicable legislation". For the full text Source:gyla.ge

Adjara. The Citizens' Advisory Council functioning with the Sakrebulo of the self-governing city of Batumi has started upgrading its members. The Citizens' Advisory Council consists of 19 members, two representatives each from the Batumi-based CSOs, business sector and mass media. Consultations will be held by the end of January and the relevant sector representatives will elect two by two members of the Council. The remaining 13 members of the Council are represented by local citizens from all 13 territorial units of Batumi (chairs of "Public Councils"). Members of the Citizens' Advisory Council are elected for the term of 1 year.

Tbilisi. On December 30, 2013 at 13.00 pm Caucasian Institute for Economic and Social Research will organize a meeting with media and NGO representatives. The meeting will be held at the conference hall of the hotel Old Tbilisi (address: Ketevan Tsamebuli str. 27). The meeting aims to present monitoring results of the self-governing cities – Batumi, Kutaisi and Poti – to the media and NGO representatives. In addition, a publication developed in the framework of the project will be presented: "Civic monitoring of the self-governance towns in Georgia”. In February 2013, Caucasian Institute for Economic and Social Research launched the project "Civic Monitoring for Transparent Self-Governance Bodies”. The project aims at promoting effectiveness of the monitoring of self-government bodies in the regions of Georgia by sharing experience and knowledge on how to conduct effective monitoring with non-governmental and media organizations that operate in the self-governance towns of Western Georgia (Batumi, Poti and Kutaisi). The project duration is 9 months. The project is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

Samegrelo. Another report was presented on December 25 in Zugdidi as part of the Public Participation in Democratic Self-Government project. Local residents, civil servants and media and CSO representatives have attended the meeting. The report includes the results and problems of meetings held in 14 territorial bodies of the Zugdidi Municipality. Pursuant to the report, infrastructural and social problems were mainly identified in the villages. The project is implemented by the Zugdidi Office of Transparency International, Civil Monitoring and Research Center and the Association "Atinati”. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. In December 2013, AYEG started project "Strong Local Governance through Enhanced Civil Participation” in partnership with World Vision Georgia. The two-year project is implemented in Imereti, Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kakheti regions and will target 56 communities in 7 municipalities. The overall objective is to influence quality, efficiency and accountability of the local government (LG) of Georgia through strengthening civil society actions. Main activities are: Setting up thematic Working Groups (health, livelihoods, education, youth issues, disability, etc); working groups to develop advocacy agendas and action plans; provide training sessions on participatory elaboration, implementation and monitoring of community development plans and performance budgets to LG representatives; develop tool for community needs assessment at municipal levels with engagement of LG representatives; provide training sessions on current state policy on LGs (e.g. municipal services, the appropriate control of community property usage, the role of LG in child protection sphere); conduct interface meetings to facilitate dialogue between the community members and LGs; facilitate joint exercises for drafting municipal plans and budgets based at municipal level; promote public hearings. The project is financed by European Commission "Non-State Actors and Local Authorities in Development” programme. Source: economists.ge

Kakheti. The Association of Municipal Service-Providers has organized under the UN auspices a meeting on December19 concerning the gender budget issue. CSO representatives and the female members of municipality Sakrebulos of the Kakheti Region have attended the meeting, key objective of which was to get familiar with the budgeting processes and take into account the population's interests.

Tbilisi. On December 16, in Tbilisi, NGO "CiDA” held a presentation of Civil Electronic Monitoring System (CEMS) that was implemented in the frames of Civil Advocacy Initiative (CAI) project. www.cems.ge, is an electronic mechanism for self-governance and the local populations’ communication, which assists the civil monitoring and involvement in decision-making process. www.cems.ge collects the information regarding various problems existing in various cities including, utility problems, self-governance projects, local bills, civil ideas and projects, petitions, regulations and rules etc. Currently the web-page includes more than 800 infrastructural and utility problems uploaded by the citizens themselves, out of which 180 of them have already been solved. Source:cida.ge

Tbilisi. The majority of non-governmental organizations sent an appeal to parliament. "The government-initiated draft of the Local Self-Governance Code was a compromise version negotiated by the leading political coalition. We believe that the proposed model does not fully reflect election promises made by Bidzina Ivanishvili and the Georgian Dream Coalition, as well as principles declared in the government's March 1, 2013 local self-governance reform strategy. However, we, as representatives of civil society, have supported it none the less, because we believe that it will be the first important and irreversible step on the path to establishing genuine local self-governance in the country. ...Unfortunately, groundless concerns raised by opposition interests outside of the Parliament before the bill was submitted led to the removal of key innovations from the draft. ...We still hope that Georgian MPs will acknowledge their responsibility towards the population of Georgia, their constituents, and will not miss this chance to develop democracy on the local level". For the full text Source:osgf.ge

Tbilisi. Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association submitted to the Parliament legal opinion on the draft amendments to the law on "Civil Service”. The initiative envisages extension of the tenure for acting civil servants of local self-government and accordingly postponement of competitions on vacant positions, which affects negatively stability of the civil service and its further development. Firstly, we would like to express our dissatisfaction with the expedited review of the draft. GYLA received the draft when the Committee had already reviewed it at the first reading. As for the content of the document, it lacks substantiation and raises some doubts and legitimate questions in view of the upcoming local government elections.  We opine that the Parliament should not hinder conduct of competition on vacant positions in local self-government bodies and should refrain from adoption of the draft. For the full text Source:gyla.ge

Kakheti. Local draft budget was discussed at the initiative of the Telavi Civic Engagement Center. The meeting aimed to enhance civil society participation in the exercise of self-government, and especially the participation of persons with disabilities in these processes, as well as to take into account their recommendations and interests before approving the final version of the budget. Employees of Financial Office of local self-government, members of the budgetary commission and the non-governmental sector representatives have participated in the meeting.

Tbilisi. Georgian Young Lawyers' Association submitted to the Parliament Legal Opinion on the Draft Code of Local Self-Government. "In view of the format of the first reading of the draft, GYLA submitted to the Parliament legal opinion on the draft code of local self-government. Firstly, we would like to highlight that the initiated reform is vital with its essence and the scope. Applicable system of local self-government is not sufficiently developed, it is not oriented adequately on citizens’ involvement in decision making process and needs to be amended. Accordingly, GYLA supports the initiated reform.  In view of urgency of the reform, it should be carried out along with intensive dialogue and  involvement of interested parties. Though the draft offers some positive initiatives, including direct election of mayors and heads of executive bodies of local municipalities (gamgebeli) by the citizens, it contains some gaps which require further work and elimination". For full text  (geo) Source:gyla.ge

Kvemo Kartli. The debates on "2014 priorities of the Rustavi Public Council" were organized on December 6 in Rustavi at the initiative of "Sida". Representatives of the city's self-government, civil sector and media, as well as interested citizens have attended the meeting, at which the Chair of the Public Council has presented to the audience the Council's activity report for 2013. Second part of the meeting was dedicated to discussion among the citizens and the Public Council members on the Council's priorities for 2014 and the development targets of its activities. Source: cida.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International - Georgia has released a statement on amendments to the Law of Georgia on the "Capital of Georgia – Tbilisi". "As it was reported, authors of the draft Law Erekle Tripolski and GiaZhorzholiani have withdrawn from the Parliament amendments to the Law, pursuant to which the powers of the Sakrebulo were considerably increasing and the authorities of the Mayor of Tbilisi were reducing in the personnel policy issues. ... We would like to stress once again that the Mayor of Tbilisi is elected by the population directly, which means that s/he enjoys high legitimacy and should have the possibility of selecting his/her own staff. Importantly, the mechanisms of accountability and control should exist, but not at the expense of considerable limitation of the Mayor's powers," says the statement. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center has released the blog post of Grigol Makharadze "Patriarch's Decentralization".  For the full text (geo) Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. On December 3-6, by the initiation of the CSO "CiDA” organized a presentation skills training for local development working group members, who worked out municipalities development strategy plans in the frames of JOIN project. As a result of 3-day training the attendees from Akhaltsikhem Bolnisi, Gardabani, Dmanisi, Marneuli and Ninotsminda will revieve knowledge and practical experience regarding presentations process and communications effective management with various auditoriums. During the meeting the groups representatives will work on the presentation versions of municipalities development plans to present them to local self-governance bodies, population and donors. Source:cida.ge

Samtskhe-Javakheti. The presentation-discussion of the draft 2014 budget of the Akhaltsikhe Municipality was organized on December 2 in the conference hall of the Union of Democrat Meskhetians. Representatives of local CSOs and international organizations, information outlets and the Financial Department of the Akhaltsikhe Municipality Gamgeoba have attended the meeting.At the meeting the CSO sector representatives have elaborated on the issues with which they intend to approach the local self-government in the coming days. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Samegrelo. Transparency International Georgia released a blog post - "Zugdidi Municipality's 2014 budget proposal”. "Zugdidi Municipality presented its 2014 draft budget to the public on November 18, 2013. The draft budget is quite well spelled out. Importantly it has taken into account the majority of Transparency International Georgia’s recommendations, concerning the public’s social spending priorities", says blog post.  For full text Source:transparency.ge

Adjara. The Citizens' Advisory Council and the Batumi Sakrebulo have organized an open door day on November 22 in the Sakrebulo's Assembly Hall, where the draft 2014 budget of the self-governing city Batumi was discussed. Sakrebulo members and representatives of local CSOs and public assemblies have attended the meeting. The city's budget is a key document for the city and active citizen participation is extremely important throughout its planning process. Accordingly, attending audience has raised number of issues and made comments and recommendations on the spot. The Sakrebulo ensures the receipt of the citizens' comments and recommendations, and no later than November 25 the Chairman of the Sakrebulo will return the draft budget to the City Hall. Before 10th of December, the City Hall will submit the revised (or the same) draft to the Chairman of the Sakrebulo for approval.