Suchergebnisse

This paper analyses cost efficiency of the public procurement process at local level. Data is gathered in the Serbian environment, and our main hypothesis is that efficiency of public procurement can be improved significantly by the practices of organizational design and external benchmarking, measured by transaction costs. In order to prove this hypothesis, we have described case of major inefficiencies during public procurement process, and then analyzed efficiency of public procurement process, measured in hours per public procurement on a basis of 185.305 directly invested hours, during 18 months period in eight public enterprises. We have shown by statistical analysis that very wide, statistically significant (p<0,001) differences exist in efficiency of three best organizations, compared to five less efficient. All organizations perform public procurements under same environmental conditions. Thus, we have proposed organizational solutions in order to suggest means for performance improvement, and analyzed transactional costs theory in order to suggest measurement of the improvement. Adapted from the source document.

Value is the core of heritage conservation; it is what justifies legal regulations for conserving built heritage and financial investments for its maintenance and suggests usefulness and benefits of the heritage as a resource for regional growth and sustainability. Classifying (by means of proclamation) immovable property as being a part of monumental heritage has been the central instrument of heritage protection law. The basis of protection is identifying the (object of) public interest, and this identification ex lege commences legal protection, i.e. conservation regimes are established on proclaimed immovable monuments. Even though values are widely understood to be critical to understanding for heritage conservation, there is but little knowledge on how the whole range of values may be assessed in the context of decision-making and establishing the significance of the built heritage in question. This paper seeks to examine the role of built heritage as property development and its impact on local identity. A critical review of financial management and the attitude of state and local government towards built heritage is also undertaken. Adapted from the source document.

This article deals with applying modern methods of management, particularly benchmarking and system dynamics, to the area of waste management for the city Znojmo. Within the analysis, the authors focus on the following specific aims: 1. carry out an analysis of waste management utilizing benchmarking, 2. analyze the produced amount of biodegradable waste in Znojmo, and 3. describe particular sub-models in relation to biodegradable waste and establish a system dynamic model for dealing with biodegradable waste, which is based on following sub-models. They utilized the following methods: an analysis of resources, benchmarking, structured interviews with experts, objectification of the analysis, and system dynamics modeling of the process. The results are in addition to the analyzed data and applied benchmarking , in particular the diagram of causal loops, which can serve as a tool for a dynamic model and finally help to alert the responsible managers to the basic causalities and links in extremely complex systems such as waste management. Adapted from the source document.

In this research, we assessed the impact of the socio-economic status (average net wages, the registered unemployment rate), education structure and demographic risk (the age dependency ratio) of residents of different Slovenian municipalities on scores on the nationwide, external assessment of knowledge given to pupils in grade 9 of primary school. The analysis was conducted using data for 201 Slovenian municipalities where the National Assessment of Knowledge (NAK) was given to 9th-grade primary school pupils in the years 2012, 2013 and 2014. This test assesses learners' knowledge of the Slovene language and mathematics. The data were used to calculate basic descriptive statistics, as well as coefficients, correlations and validated regression models. The findings show that registered unemployment rate, average educational attainment and the age dependency ratio influence achievements in mathematics. The findings for the Slovene portion of the National Assessment of Knowledge are not as expressive, but do indicate that the registered unemployment rate and age dependency ratio have an impact. Adapted from the source document.

Many countries have made an approach to harmonization and design of the organizational and legal framework that encourages private sector participation in the co-ownership of public sector enterprises. This is why the aim of the paper was to draw attention to the potentials that are available to the public sector in Serbia in the improvement of business operations, taking into account the current Law on public-private partnerships and concessions which has been present in practice for less than two years. The paper's contribution is reflected in the presented model of the organizational, financial and developmental benefits of a public enterprise, through the application of the public-private partnership concept while bearing in mind the circumstances that are specific to the Serbian market. Adapted from the source document.

Access or right to information (RTI) is a fundamental principle in a democratic society. Most countries, particularly in the EU, regulate such institution by law, making a distinction between access to file within administrative procedures and access to public information. The article provides a normative and comparative study of the RTI regulation in Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia as South Eastern European countries. The dilemmas arising in the practical implementation thereof are analyzed as well. In the respective area, the degree of awareness of the need for open and good administration governance is rather high, taking into account EU guidelines, yet regulation alone does not suffice and should be followed by effective implementation to overcome still undergoing processes of Europeanization and (post)transition and develop good administrative governance. Adapted from the source document.

Financing of local public services is, in principle, subject to the European Union State aid law and policy. Thus, local authorities of the Member States and certain other stakeholders shall carefully observe complex and restrictive State aid rules, since their breach can substantially impair the desired performance of local public services. However, the daily practice at the local level, in particular within the new Member States, still reveals significant shortcomings, which can be at least to a certain extent imputed to complexity, and considerable rigidity of the State aid rules. The European Commission has recently offered a new set of rules, the so-called Almunia package, aimed at bridging the said problems. The Almunia package is of great importance for the local public services and their stakeholders as it has offered considerable simplifications for the small, mostly locally oriented projects. Indeed, the new package is an important step in the right direction, at least from the local public services perspective. Adapted from the source document.

Using as a starting point the close relationship between the concepts of governance, control and public auditing, this article puts forward the idea of introducing a set of roles and measures in the exercise of external performance auditing, one which would raise the efficiency of audit control in the field of governance. Specifically, it posits a hypothesis regarding how these proposals make a contribution to two essential aspects of local public life: citizens' participation and the fight against fraud. The work takes Spain as the scene and analyzes its deficiencies and opportunities from a reformist viewpoint. The empirical analysis takes into account the opinions of the main interest groups in local government: internal and external auditors, local politicians, public managers and members of the public represented by local participatory committees. In this way the writers aim to make a contribution to the slim amount of empirical literature existing in this field and suggest ways to make improvements in the professional field of auditing and its national configuration. Adapted from the source document.

The decentralization of the state public administration was announced in spite of the EU integration process as well as the reform of the state public administration that proved the necessity of transforming and transferring the competences and finances to the subnational levels of governance. From this principle, among others, the regional and municipal administration of education sector evolved in Slovakia. This article aims to study the decentralization development with the particular impact on local self-government and regional school system. The authors argue about the potential threats of school decentralization and challenges that the system of regional and municipal schools brings. Adapted from the source document.

Several models of the definition of local government competences have been evolved in the modern public law systems. Traditionally the county governments have had an important role in the Hungarian public administration. Although, this role was weakened after 1990 the new county governments have had important service provider functions to 2011, which system has been changed by the new Hungarian Municipal Code. The former public services performed by the county governments became the tasks of the central government and partly the functions of the county towns. Thus, the counties lost the majority of their functions and they received just narrow competences in regional planning. These tasks were extended by the reforms of 2013 which can be the base of a new 'developing county' approach. Adapted from the source document.

The authors have compare characteristics of local self-government systems in Lithuania and Slovakia in this article and try to identify main differences and similarities within the field of inter-municipal cooperation. The authors have supposed that, size structure of local governments has impact on inter-municipal cooperation -- the more consolidated structure, the less intensive inter-municipal cooperation. They have based their hypothesis on a statement that inter-municipal cooperation is considered a crucial instrument to overcome shortages linked to fragmented structure of local governments. For this purpose, the authors have analyzed data obtained by means of interviews with local officials. Besides, they analyze content of various relevant legal and planning documents. Adapted from the source document.

While the current literature has focused on the various forms of accountability, the mediating role of professionalism in explaining the association between accountability and participatory governance has remained largely unexplored. This study aims to identify the critical role of professionalism by examining how public administrators and citizens perceived and dealt with conflicting accountability pressures in participatory governance. Through structural equation models with the Local Community Center Survey, the results show that from the citizen perspective, the perceived professionalism mediates the positive association between the level of procedural, performance, and political accountability and participatory governance. Adapted from the source document.

This article provides theoretical background on benchmarking and presents a cost-efficiency focused benchmarking model for the local water provider performing a mandatory public utility of water supply in the municipality from Gorenjska region. The model comprises a ratio model applied on an available sample of clustered Slovenian municipalities. The results of the developed model suggest relative cost-efficiency of the drinking water supply. The water provider for whom the research has been carried out will use the information obtained from this study, for strategic decision-making purposes as well as public relations purposes. Adapted from the source document.

Voter turnout in local and general elections is a key element in measuring citizen participation. From 2004, New Zealand local elections were unique in that local councils had the choice of two different electoral systems: plurality majority and proportional representation. We have here the opportunity to study more about New Zealand local elections and changes in electoral systems. This article analyses the impact of the 'Single Transferable Vote' electoral system in those councils that adopted it, comparing it to those councils which used 'First Past the Post'. This article explains how the STV electoral system has not increased voter turnout and was not the cause of low voter turnout in the 2004-2007 local elections. It might, however, offer voters a better way to choose their preferences. Adapted from the source document.

In this article, the authors have attempted to set some starting points for the comparative study on the position of independent local politics (candidates) in the relation with different electoral system, including choosing their strategies, alliances, steps, etc. They will compare two republics - Slovak republic and Czech Republic - which have not only common history and states, but transform after the split very differently, not only in the national level, but especially in the regional and local level. Adapted from the source document.