Transparency and responsible policies, especially at the local level, are always important for citizens, because they directly affect their living and economic standard. But as always, good governance and a transparent and responsible local authority is not always what they voted for and what they hoped for.
Speaking on these topics in Veles, CIVIL Media spoke with Mayor Ace Kocevski, who confirmed most responsibly that the Municipality is one of the most transparent municipalities, given the situation he encountered from the previous government. Still, the opposition VMRO-DPMNE has many remarks at the local level.
“Speaking of the transparency of the Municipality, first of all, the sessions of the Council of this local authority, in a period of two years, were not publicised anywhere. With the equipment that was received with a project with which the previous government had applied. Now the sessions go on the website and the YouTube channel of the Municipality, but how would the more elderly population watch the sessions? They used to go on the local media and they were watched then and more information was accessible to them then it is now. According to the number of views, it can be seen that the number of those who follow them on the Internet is not so high”, said Nada Trajkova, Coordinator of the Council group of VMRO-DPMNE in the Municipality of Veles.
She noted that the quarterly reports, rebalances, reports of all public enterprises under the competence of the Municipality and similar documents are not posted on the website of the Municipality.
“I think that the plan for public procurements, if it is going to the Public Procurement Bureau anyway, is not at all difficult to be downloaded and put on the Municipality’s website, and there is no harm, because not everyone knows how to open the website of the Bureau and have insight into the type of procurements the Municipality has carried out, what is anticipated with the plan, the value of the procurements and whether they are being realized. The urban and local communities are the basic cell of citizens where they can state their priorities, and they have no presidents for two years now. And if they are not functioning, then what sort of priorities are we solving? Public debates of the Municipality are held only for the programs, but are poorly attended, which means that information and transparency are poor in this area as well”, said Trajkova.
Regarding the public debates, Mayor Kocevski praised that the cooperation with the civil sector is at a high level when it comes to precisely this segment of work on various topics and issues.
Trajkova thinks that the Council of the Municipality should have great influence, but the council groups have a different number of council members and number of votes, and so not always decisions are made with which the opposition agrees.
Biljana Jordanovska
Camera: Dehran Muratov
Photo: Maja Ivanovska
This post is also available in: Macedonian
