BiHGap Phase II
GAP Achievements
“[The] local administration finally created one place for all service delivery!”
a citizen exclaimed in the comment book at the new Citizen Service Center (CSC) and Urban Permit Center (UPC) in Ilidža, a large municipality bordering Sarajevo. Before the Government Accountability Project (GAP) assisted the Ilidža municipal government to construct and equip these centers, services were dispersed across four separate locations, allowing government officials to work with little accountability, and permitting low-quality customer service delivery. To promote good governance and streamline bureaucratic processes, GAP partnered with Ilidža to establish the CSC and UPC, which opened on May 13, 2009.
Municipal Government in Bosnia Sees Increased Transparency, Effectiveness
In municipalities across Bosnia-Herzegovina, citizens have had to cope with slow government processes and complicated departmental systems for years. These burdensome inefficiencies create opportunities for corruption and often force citizens to spend extended periods of time carrying out simple processes, like acquiring birth certificates or registering to work.
Achieving the Rights of Local Self-Governance
On April 14, 2009, the Constitutional Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) declared that the right of municipalities in FBiH to local self-government had been violated by several articles of the Law on Forests in the FBiH. In the verdict, the court asked the Federal Parliament to work with the Municipal Association to change the provisions violating the rights of the municipalities within 6 months.
Achieving the Rights of Local Self-Governance
On April 9, 2009 the Bosnian municipality of Visoko opened its first modern and highly functional Citizen Service Center (CSC) and Urban Permit Center (UPC). This achievement was made possible by the joint effort of Visoko’s municipal staff and technical and monetary assistance from the Governance and Accountability (GAP) project. Already, these two local centers have resulted in a dramatic improvement in the level of service delivery to Visoko citizens. Whereas before it was common to hear people complain of wasting time at the municipality in long lines, or waiting for the right person to come back from a work break, now the necessary information is readily available, and often just a mouse click away!
GAP Awards First Round of Capital Projects
BAM 2.3million awarded For the past five years, the Governance Accountability (GAP) project has facilitated the creation of a capital improvement planning (CIP) process in 35 partner municipalities across BiH. The purpose of this campaign was to encourage and improve participatory mechanisms for citizen participation in community planning by engaging civil society, community groups, and NGOs in planning and monitoring capital improvement projects.
WORKSHOP ON IMPROVEMENT OF THE PERMIT ISSUANCE PROCEDURE HELD IN THE SIROKI BRIJEG MUNICIPALITY
Friday, January 30, 2009 The workshop titled: “Improvement of the Procedure for Issuance of Zoning Permits, Construction Permits, and Inspection Certificates by Establishing the Centre for Permit Issuance in the Široki Brijeg Municipality”, organized by GAP, Governance Accountability Project, was held in the Široki Brijeg Town Hall. Members of the Permit Issuance Centre Advisory Board, that is representatives of HT Mostar, PE Elektroprivreda HZHB,
Western-Herzegovina Canton Forest Economic Society, Široki Brijeg Municipality public enterprises, private company Security Engineering (Sigurnosni inzenjering), Cantonal Road Administration, Cantonal Water Management Inspectorate, Western-Herzegovina Canton Ministry of Economy, and members of the Advisory Board from the Cadastral and Zoning Department of the Široki Brijeg Municipality participated in the workshop. (read more...)
“For the first time ever, the municipal administration of Kladanj printed the map of their cadastral plans using their own resources, both human and technical. They are making history”, said the head of the Urban Department in her report to the mayor.
This breakthrough was made possible by a collaborative effort between the municipality and the GAP project. In addition to providing improvements in municipal administration, GAP implemented a number of Urban and Cadastral Department interventions in many of its 71 partner-municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This week, Ilijaš in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Trnovo in the
MZ Doboj IV is a small, ethnically mixed community of a few hundred households in
Kakanj, a large municipality 50 kilometers northwest of Sarajevo. For a number of years,
this community faced a serious problem: while waste heat from a nearby power plant
went unused, the homes within the community had to rely on dirty, inefficient and unsafe
wood and coal stoves for heating. (read more...) 