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Republic of Armenia

Strategy Paper
On Further Development of Local Self-
Government and Decentralization of Power


Civil Society and Local Government Support Program - CSLGSP
USAID/Counterpart International











Yerevan 2012


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This study was made possible by the generous support of the American people
through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under
Cooperative Agreement AID-111-LA-10-00001, implemented by Counterpart
International, as the Civil Society and Local Government Support Program
(CSLGSP).

Content, views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s), and the
responsibility of Counterpart International, and do not necessarily reflect the views of
USAID or the United States Government.



















This paper has been prepared by experts from the following organizations:
Community Finance Officers of Armenia
Councilors Association of Armenia
Information Systems Development and Tranining Center of Armenia
International Center for Human Development
Union of Communities of Armenia
Urban Foundation for Sustainable Development


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Preface

As a result of the referendum held in 1995, the people of Armenia enshrined the
constitutional grounds for creating local self-government in the Republic of Armenia. The
decentralization of government and the formation of a system of local self-government
began in Armenia with the introduction of a new system of administrative-territorial division of
the country and the adoption of the 1996 Law on Local Self-Government. From year to year,
the Armenian authorities have taken steps towards reform of the local self-government
system and further decentralization.
Armenia joined the Council of Europe in 2001. On 25 January 2002, Armenia ratified the
European Charter of Local Self-Government, embracing the pan-European values of local
democracy, the right of a countrys citizens to participate in public governance at the local
level, and the decentralization of power. By ratifying the Charter, Armenia specifically
undertook to create, in line with the European standards, a system of legal regulation of local
self-government, the powers of local government units, administrative structures of local self-
government, and appropriate conditions for the exercise of powers at the local level. Under
the Charter, the RoA also recognized the appropriate principles and mechanisms of
financing and administrative supervision of the activities of local government units, the right
of communities to associate, and the principle of legal protection of local self-government.
In 2002, the new RoA Law on Local Self-Government was adopted, which was aimed at
further enhancement of local self-government institutions, strengthening of financial and
administrative capacity, and promotion of local democracy.
A comprehensive vision for further decentralization of the power is reflected in various
programs of the RoA Government dating back to 2000; however, it is rather brief and
declarative. Whilst addressing some of the issues related to local self-government, the
Governments programs and other public policy documents, including the 2003 Poverty
Reduction Strategy Paper, the 2008 Sustainable Development Program, the RoA Anti-
Corruption Strategy and its 2009-2012 Implementation Action Plan, and other national and
targeted programs fail to provide a consolidated and complete policy for the development of
the countrys local self-government system and the decentralization of power.
The RoA-EU Action Plan adopted in November 2006 under the European Neighbourhood
Policy outlined the priorities of the European development path of Armenia. The RoA
Government reaffirmed its commitment to strengthen local self-government, including the

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communities and municipal service institutions in line with the European standards and to
implement the European Charter of Local Self-Government.
1

In 2010, RoA Ministry for Territorial Administration, jointly with the Union of Communities of
Armenia, with the support of the Council of Europe experts, developed an Action Plan
between the Council of Europe and the RoA Government for reforms in local self-
government sector, which contemplates a number of measures for the period from 2011 to
2014.
2

The main aim of the strategic paper on decentralization is to develop and consolidate the
core principles of the government decentralization policy in line with the Sustainable
Development Program and the relevant strategic documents of the country.
The main objectives of this paper are:
To review the current situation in the local self-government system and to present the
achievements and the fundamental approach to the state policy of development of the
system;
To identify the long-term development challenges and opportunities taking into account
the international best practices in the field, the experiences relevant to Armenia, and the
EU Programming Guide for Strategy Papers on Decentralization;
To define the priority focus and targets of the state policy for development of the system;
To outline the most preferred and goal-focused scenarios of decentralization and
development of the local self-government system;
To describe the main principles, goals, and anticipated outcomes of the state policy of
decentralization and further development of the RoA local self-government system;
To define the main phases, institutions, and actors of policy implementation; and
To outline the strategy implementation steps and actions.
This paper starts with a preface and executive summary, which are followed by four
chapters. Chapter 1 addresses the issues related to the administrative-territorial division of
the RoA and inter-community cooperation. Chapter 2 addresses the decentralization of
power, including the transfer of powers from central government to LGUs, and the further
development of the institutions of the community mayor and community council. Chapter 3
covers issues pertaining to financial decentralization, including tax aspects and matters

1
http://www.mineconomy.am/files/docs/11_am.pdf
2
http://www.mta.gov.am/files/docs/190.pdf
2
http://www.mta.gov.am/files/docs/190.pdf

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related to financial management. Chapter 4, the last chapter, is dedicated to local
democracy, the development of the LGU electoral system, and the introduction of
information technology in the LGU system.
The annexes contain definitions of the key terms used in the Strategy Paper (Annex 1),
detailed numbers related to community budgets, and the bibliography.
Each of the four chapters of this Paper has the following logical structure: an overview of the
problems in the sector and their root causes, proposed solutions, and strategic priorities for
short-, medium-, and long-term development.


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Executive Summary

Current Situation and Issues in Local Self-Government
The local self-government system of Armenia has had significant achievements over the last
15 years. However, times pose new, even greater challenges to the further development,
strengthening, and democratization of the system.
According to the Nations in Transit unnual reports published by the Freedom House, the
local self-government system of Armenia received a score of 5.50 during 2005-2010, and
5.75 in 2011, which means that the local self-government system of Armenia is still in a
stage of transition from an authoritarian to a democratic system of governance.
3

Due to a variety of reasons, most communities in Armenia (especially small urban
communities and rural communities) cannot fully exercise the powers granted to them,
leading to a large part of the mandatory powers and delegated powers of the LGUs being
under-exercised or not exercised at all. Thus, the powers of local self-government are legally
prescribed without taking into account the communities capacity and resources to exercise
them. Although the powers granted to the LGUs by law were somewhat amended and
supplemented during 2003-2007, there has been no radical change in this area.
Further development of the RoA local self-government system is directly linked with the
intensification of the general process of decentralization and democratization. Nonetheless,
local self-government reforms are conducted in Armenia in the absence of comprehensive
and systemic approaches, undermining the impact of government policies implemented in
this area.
The consolidation of communities is an urgent matter as numerous small communities in
Armenia lack the economic, financial, and human resources, conditions, and capacity to
execute effective local self-government and to deliver high-quality municipal services to the
population.
The creation of inter-community unions is another measure for optimizing the
administrative-territorial division of the country. Its primary focus is on supporting
communities with scarce economic, financial, and human resources and inadequate capacity
in the performance of their mandatory and delegated powers by facilitating the solution of
problems that are vital for the inhabitants of small communities, the reduction of polarization
between communities, and the prevention of the squandering of resources and corruption.

3
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm

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In Armenia, the power still remains very much concentrated at the national level, which is not
necessarily more productive or in line with the principle of subsidiarity. The time has come
for defining a new and more productive correlation between the centralized and
decentralized modalities of public service delivery. To this end, Armenia is far behind the
Eastern European and Baltic states.
The absence of legally-prescribed procedures for the exercise of the mandatory and
delegated powers of the LGUs poses serious obstacles to the determination of the
minimum financing required for the exercise of such powers and the implementation of
adequate internal and external oversight of their exercise. LGUs have no clear and
consistent definition of the costs of exercising mandatory powers, allowing for various forms
of arbitrary conduct. On the other hand, the bodies that carry out supervision, in the absence
of the criteria for the exercise of mandatory powers and the legal basis defining the
normative standards, cannot adequately and effectively perform their functions of
supervision, monitoring, and evaluation. Due mostly to the absence of such methodologies,
the Government has still not defined the procedures of the exercise and financing of
mandatory and delegated powers of the LGUs.
It is important to develop rational and effective systems of community governance,
which are largely influenced by the relationship and cooperation between the community
council and mayor, as well as the existence of adequate procedures and effective institutions
of checks and balances between them. Nevertheless, the institution of community councils is
currently not adequately developed in Armenia due to the shortcomings in the current
legislation regulating the election of council members: the current legislation fails to
safeguard the election of council members that have proper knowledge and expertise.
Effective strategic planning in communities is important for the transparency and
accountability of financial management of communities. All the communities in Armenia
have four-year programs of community development, but they mostly do not reflect the real
situation in the community and do not contain even the most basic elements of strategic
planning. Moreover, the four-year programs of community development are not harmonized
with either national strategic plans or Marz (regional) development plans; there are no
methodological guidelines for the consistent elaboration of Marz (regional) and municipal
development plans.
For purposes of community financial management accountability and financial discipline,
financial management in municipal non-commercial organizations (MNCOs) is
performed outside the budgeting system, which limits their accountability and complicates
the consolidation of budgetary and off-budgetary funds. Many communities lack specialists

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to maintain automated information systems on land tax and property tax. The existing staff
needs continuous education and training.
Subsidies granted to communities by central government under the principle of
financial equalization are sometimes spent without due respect for the requirement to
exercise the mandatory powers prescribed by law. The procedure developed by the RoA
Government for providing subventions to the communities is still not complete: the
Government reviews the requests filed by communities and makes decisions in the absence
of clear criteria and procedures. Moreover, the decisions are often discretionary, and the
process of rendering them is not transparent and accountable.
Compliance with the legislative requirements on publicity of community budgeting is
insufficient in practice due to the absence of local media and websites in the vast majority of
the communities.
In practice, the procurement process is poorly organized in the communities of the RoA,
especially in rural and small urban communities, mostly due to the absence of professional
knowledge and skills. Furthermore, LGUs do not always make use of the services of the
Procurement Support Center defined by the Law on Procurements, which is a legal entity (a
state non-commercial organization) exercising powers stipulated by law and rendering
professional advice to clients at no cost and to participants and other persons for a fee. The
legislation does not regulate the requirements on the disclosure of conflicts of interest by
members of the committee evaluating the community procurement tender or bids, which
directly undermines the competitiveness of the procurement participants and increases the
corruption risks. The tenders held in communities are often won by organizations that are
often times sponsored by the community mayor.
The functions of the system of decentralized supervision of municipal financial management,
i.e. the institution of internal audit, are not properly performed in communities; many
communities do not develop audit plans, do not prepare budget execution reports, and do
not present them to the community council for review. The professional capacity and skills of
the municipal servants performing internal audit are extremely inadequate; they are not
independent and act mostly upon direct instruction of their superiors. In the best cases, the
performance of the audit is limited to the audit of financial compliance.
It is important to organize and implement effective state supervision of the activities of
LGUs. The Constitution amended in November 2005 prescribes provisions on the
introduction and performance by the state of legal supervision of the lawfulness of the
activities of LGUs. Nevertheless, the legislation still does not regulate the procedure of

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performing state supervision of the exercise of powers delegated to communities by the
state.
The legislation does not regulate the measures that may be imposed in the course of
administrative supervision by the Marzpet (regional governor), either. The legal and
professional supervision functions of the governors are still not clearly delineated, and
appropriate procedures for their performance have not been defined.
The RoA Control Chamber, the highest body of external audit of the activities of LGUs, has
become more active in the communities since 2008. Inspections have revealed various
violations in a number of urban and rural communities
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in terms of legislation and
procedures, as well as financial aspects (rather large-scale corruption cases have been
exposed).
In virtually all the communities of the RoA, the municipal free and paid services delivered to
the population in the area of housing and utilities are inadequate, of insufficient quality,
and not accessible for the whole population. In smaller communities, many of these services
are not delivered at all. The delivery of housing and utility services is generally still not fully
regulated; there are no consistent rules, standards, approved performance benchmarks, and
clear measurement criteria.
About 761 condominiums operating in the RoA (of which 499 in Yerevan
5
) are either not
active or organizationally weak. The relationship between a community and the
condominium is unclear. There is no regulation of the institutions and forms of support
rendered to the condominium by the community. The support normally increases before
various elections with the aim of mobilizing support for a particular candidate.
The services of registries of civil status acts (RCSA) are mostly located in urban
communities, serving also the nearby rural communities. The stamp duties collected are
credited only to the budgets of the relevant urban communities. Although the maintenance
costs of the RCSA services, as costs related to the exercise of powers delegated by the
central government, are financed by the RoA state budget through the community budgets,
they do not present execution reports on their activities to the LGUs, while public of
awareness of RCSA services and rates of stamp duties collected for such services is low.

4
2008-2010 current reports of the RoA Chamber of Control on the findings of the supervision of the use of
budgetary resources, community budget revenue collection, and management and use of municipal property by
communities of the Syunik, Gegharkunik, Ararat, Armavir, and Lori Marzes (regions) of the RoA, as well as the
Gyumri city municipality and the Shengavit administrative district of Yerevan.
5
www.armstat.am

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The professionalism, competence, and management skills and capacity of about 7,000
municipal servants occupied in the RoA local self-government system are still insufficient
to meet the needs of effective municipal governance. In view of the professional nature of
different powers, there is a shortage of professionals with relevant professional education,
qualification, experience, and skills. Considering that LGUs also exercise powers delegated
to communities by the state, the state is obviously interested in the development of their
capacity.
As a result of introducing municipal service, numerous municipal servants lost their jobs
due to their incompatibility with the criteria set forth in their job descriptions: 1,064 or about
15.2 percent of the 6,958 municipal service positions in Armenia have become vacant.
6
This
phenomenon negatively affected the activities of LGUs in rural communities, which are
always short of human resources.
The current scarcity of financial resources in the majority of the communities considerably
limits the possibilities of training municipal servants.
The cooperation between local government units and Marzpetarans, i.e. the Territorial
administration units, is still not fully regulated. One reason is that the legal grounds and
functions of Territorial administration units are not clarified.
7
The Marzpetarans are the
representatives of the central government in the Marzes and are mainly called to coordinate
the development and implementation of Marz development plans; however, they do not have
the required financial and legal leverage for adequately performing these functions. Not
being elected bodies, Marzpetarans do not have their budget; rather, they are simply an
interim unit of governance, which spends budgetary resources in certain areas within the
Marz. While Marzpetarans have comprehensive authority regarding the governance and
financing of public schools, they have limited governance powers and no financing powers
vis--vis hospitals in the Marz. Thus, only some of the state programs implemented in a
Marz are financed and actually supervised by the Marzpetaran, which does not allow the
Marzpetarans to perform adequately and effectively even their primary function of
developing and implementing Marz development plans. As a consequence of the absence of
legal and financial grounds of territorial administration, on the one hand, and the still
inadequate functioning of local self-government, on the other, Marzpetarans gradually start
to penetrate into the domain of local self-government, which greatly increases the

6
E. Ghazaryan, Correspondence between Administrative Structures and Resources and the Functions of LGUs,
Reforms of Local Self-Government in Armenia (2004-2006), Volume II, edited by D. Tumanyan, Yerevan 2008.
7
To date, regional governance is implemented in Armenia in accordance with a 1995 Decree of the RoA
President On Regional Governance in the Republic of Armenia.

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centralization of government, obstructing the development and strengthening of local self-
government in the RoA.
Hence, it is presently necessary to have the Marz governed predominantly via elected Marz-
or district-level bodies of Marz self-government, and to phase out the Marzpetarans. In other
words, Armenia needs to make a transition to a two-tier system of local self-government,
which is an essential step towards further democratization of government.
Key Principles and Objectives of the RoA Local Self-Government System
Development and Decentralization Policy
The RoA Government will secure the implementation of an effective and well-coordinated
policy of further development of local self-government and decentralization of power through
this Strategy Paper and the associated Implementation Action Plan.
To secure the implementation of an effective and well-coordinated policy of further
development of the RoA local self-government system and decentralization of power, the
RoA Government will persistently continue during 2012-2015:
To implement the international tools in the area of local self-government, including the
CoEs European Charter of Local Self-Government and the international best practices
in the field of decentralization of power by analyzing, adapting, and introducing them;
To secure the effective and coordinated work of the bodies responsible for the
implementation of the policy on development of the local self-government system and
decentralization of power by means of delineating their functions and ensuring
effective cooperation between such bodies; and
To address evenly the policy priorities of local self-government system development
and decentralization of power, including administrative and fiscal decentralization,
strengthening of local government units, and development of local democracy by
means of legislative improvements, institutional reforms, and consistent application of
the legal rules.
The goals and objectives of the RoA Governments Strategy Paper on Further Development
of Local Self-Government and Decentralization of Power (SFDLSGDP) are disaggregated
in terms of the expected results: final impact, outcomes, and outputs. The results
expected at each level are required to be tangible, realistic, measurable, and compatible.
The main goal and expected final result of the SFDLSGDP is to improve the quality of
local self-government and the quality and accessibility of municipal services delivered to the
population in the Republic of Armenia.

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The final results of the implementation of the SFDLSGDP will be evaluated as the ratio (in
percent) of budget expenditures of the RoA communities to the gross domestic product. This
ratio has grown successively in the last three years: the increase in 2010 relative to 2008
was over 1.5-fold, reaching about 2.4%. Nonetheless, Armenia lags behind the EU member
states and the majority of countries of Central and Eastern Europe in terms of performance
in this area.

The outcomes of the SFDLSGDP are:
Administrative-territorial consolidation of the local self-government system;
Considerable expansion of the powers of local government units, securing the financing
necessary for their exercise, and streamlining of the relationship between central
government and local government units;
Significant improvement of the efficiency of management of municipal property and
financial resources, and improving the lawfulness, accountability, publicity, and
transparency of the activities of local government units;
Expansion of inter-community cooperation and improving its effectiveness; and
Improving the system of formation of local government units, expanding and increasing
the effectiveness of public participation in municipal governance.
The outcomes of the SFDLSGDP are evaluated using a number of indicators that are
presented in Annex 2.
Priorities and Objectives of the RoA Local Self-Government System Development and
Decentralization Policy
The key objective of implementing the SFDLSGDP is administrative and fiscal
decentralization, strengthening of local government units, and development of local
democracy for the purpose of increasing the effectiveness of local self-government and
improving the quality and accessibility of municipal services rendered to the population.
The priorities for administrative decentralization are: optimizing the administrative-
territorial division of the RoA, promoting inter-community cooperation, and streamlining the
powers and obligations of LGUs.
For optimizing the administrative-territorial division of the RoA, the following will be
particularly important: adopting the concept paper on community consolidation in the RoA
based on the analysis and evaluation of results and the consolidation of experience of pilot
consolidation projects carried out in certain communities of selected Marzes, publicly

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discussing and approving the strategy with the participation of society at large, and gradual
implementation of community consolidation throughout the RoA using a combination of the
voluntary and mandatory principles.
It is further necessary to make a transition to a two-tier system of local self-government in
Armenia. To this end, the competences and functions of Marz and community self-
government bodies and the distribution of powers among them will be clarified.
For promoting inter-community cooperation, it will be important: to form inter-
community unions, to introduce legislation regulating the powers of inter-community unions
and their constituent communities, government bodies, their relationships, their own
property, budget revenue sources, and budget expenditure priorities, and to support the
formation and development of such unions with state budget resources.
For streamlining the procedure defining the rights and obligations of LGUs, it will be
important: to define the areas, timeframe, and phases of new powers to be transferred to
LGUs, to adopt legislation regulating the exercise of powers, to introduce supervision of the
service delivery criteria and the exercise of powers, and to adopt legislation regulating the
relationship between the LGUs and central government bodies.
For fiscal decentralization, the priorities are: increasing the financial independence of
communities, securing the stability and diversity of community budget revenues, improving
the effectiveness, transparency, accountability, and lawfulness of community public finance
management and financial control and supervision, safeguarding financial means necessary
for the exercise of the mandatory and delegated powers of the LGUs, improving and
increasing the effectiveness of the system of state financial support to community budgets,
and developing and promoting the activity of communities in credit markets.
For increasing the financial independence of communities and securing the stability
and diversity of community budget revenues, it will be important: to organize and
adequately to perform the stock-taking and state registration of community-owned property
(buildings, premises, and land) in the communities, to develop and to implement unified
systems for management of community property, to introduce legislation prescribing the
percentage share of taxes and mandatory fees allocated to community budgets from
collections to the state budget, to develop and to implement a unified automated information
system of maintaining a database and collecting payments for local taxes, duties, and fees in
communities, as well as municipal services, to improve the legislation on local duties and
fees, to introduce new local taxes in the tax legislation, to grant LGUs the power to set the
rates of certain taxes, to support the economic development of communities, and to develop

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the legislative foundation for economic activities and to bring them into line with the RoA
legislation.
For improving the effectiveness, transparency, accountability, and lawfulness of
public finance management in communities and of financial control and supervision,
it will be important: to improve the legislation on community finance and to eliminate
inconsistencies and conflicts, to develop and implement a new system of strategic planning
and management, to develop and implement methodological guidelines and instructions for
the elaboration, review, implementation, regular revision, and supervision of program and
budget documents, to ensure consistency between state/Marz development programs and
community development programs, to introduce a new system of multi-year program and/or
performance budgeting in communities and procedures for its implementation in practice, to
develop and build up the capacity of LGUs to engage in investment, technical assistance,
and development plans implemented by state, private, local, and international organizations,
to improve the procurement system in communities, to define conflict of interest and
disclosure requirements, public auctions procedures, and other procedures, to balance the
powers of community mayors in the procurement process and to prescribe individual
responsibility, to encourage competition in the procurement process, to introduce state
supervision of the application of and compliance with procedures, to introduce a new system
of accounting in the communities, to develop the relevant legislative basis for and to
introduce internal and external audit systems in the communities, to provide methodological
assistance, to improve state supervision, to introduce systems for citizens participation,
monitoring, and evaluation, and to develop the professional capacity of and to train municipal
servants.
For securing the financing necessary for exercising the mandatory and delegated
powers of the LGUs, it will be important: to prescribe legislative safeguards of the
provision of adequate financing for the adequate and effective exercise of the LGUs powers,
to develop and adopt the methodologies for calculating the cost of exercising the mandatory
and delegated powers of the LGUs, to set the minimum financing need, and to safeguard a
legal foundation for the financing exercise of mandatory and delegated powers of the LGUs
based on such methodologies.
For improving the effectiveness of the system of state financial support to community
budgets, it will be important: to prescribe the new principles of financial equalization of
communities, to introduce more targeted and effective procedures, to introduce legislation on
the provision of other state subsidies, financial support, and earmarked allocations
(subventions), to define the criteria for preparing the requests for and plans of earmarked

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allocations, and to ensure the publicity, transparency, and participatory nature of making
decisions thereon.
For developing and promoting the activities of communities in the credit market, it will
be important: to introduce legislation regulating community access to credit and effective
and fully-fledged access to the securities market, to develop the communities capacity and
skills of analyzing the financial situation of a community, assessing the communitys
creditworthiness, and accessing credit, and to attract credit programs to the community-
based economy.
For strengthening local government units, the priorities are: developing the system of
LGUs general competences and powers, improving the institutions of the community mayor
and council and the system of checks and balances between them, developing the capacity
of LGUs and consolidating the municipal service system, improving the transparency and
accountability of LGUs, and increasing the effectiveness of cooperation between the
community and the condominium.
For improving the system of LGUs general competences and powers, it will be
important: to review the distribution of powers between different tiers of government, to
enact legislation clarifying the relationship between Marz administration and local
government units, to regulate state supervision of the activities of LGUs, to introduce
legislation prescribing the procedure of state supervision of the exercise of powers
delegated to the community by the state and the measures that a Marzpet (governor) can
implement in the process of administrative supervision, to introduce procedures of
supervision, to ensure effective distribution of responsibility between public administration
bodies, to consolidate the governors functions of administrative supervision of the LGUs
activities, to improve the supervision capacity of the Marzpetarans and their infrastructure,
to delineate and clarify the general competences of LGUs, to prescribe legislative grounds
for the exercise of the powers, and to maximize the engagement of the community
population, community institutions, and civil society groups in the local self-government
process.
For improving the institutions of the community mayor and council and the system of
checks and balances between them, it will be important: to streamline the powers and
functions of LGUs and to eliminate conflicts, to develop the community council as a
representative body, to improve the electoral legislation on the formation of the community
council, to clarify the requirements on community council membership candidates, to
streamline the internal organizational structure and operational procedures and regulations

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of the community council, to implement them in the communities of the RoA, to hold broad
public consultations, and to improve the conditions for the work of the councils.
For developing the capacity of the LGUs and consolidating the municipal service
system, it will be important: to develop and implement optimal structure models for the
municipal staff, to develop the LGU management knowledge and expertise, to organize
training programs for community council members and municipal servants on the municipal
service system, to introduce procedures safeguarding the transparency of competitions held
to fill vacancies in municipal service, to create a unified database of communities, to
introduce state-of-the-art management technology, internal computer networks, and unified
community management systems in the LGUs, to ensure their inclusion and integration with
unified Marz management information systems, to implement projects to educate and train
the staff operating the community information systems, and to develop one-stop shop
receptions for the delivery of public citizens and offices of citizen services in Yerevan and the
Marzes.
For improving the transparency and accountability of the activities of LGUs, it will be
important: to implement procedures ensuring the transparency and publicity of their
activities, to streamline the procedures of internal and external supervision in communities,
to introduce legislation and appropriate procedures requiring the preparation of a report of
the community mayor on the execution of the four-year community development program, its
submission for review and approval by the council, and its publication, to set clear criteria for
measuring the performance of organizations delivering municipal services, to implement
monitoring and evaluation procedures, to require regular publication of the evaluation
results, to implement procedures aimed at effective cooperation and the management of
information flows between the RoA Chamber of Control and the LGUs in the external audit of
the activities of LGUs, to streamline the terms and procedures of required state registration
of community-owned property in the RoA, and to tighten council and state supervision of the
state registration and efficient management of community-owned property.
For improving the effectiveness of the cooperation between the community and the
multi-apartment building management authorities (especially the condominiums), it
will be important: to introduce legislation defining the forms of community support to the
management authority and the procedure of delegating certain powers of LGUs to them, to
implement the relevant procedures, to supervise the discretionary decisions made by the
community mayor in this process, to introduce clear regulation of the relationship between
the community, the management authority, and the inhabitants, and to implement
supervision of their lawfulness.

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For the development of local democracy, the priorities will be promoting citizens
participation in local decision-making and public administration, increasing the publicity of
the activities of the LGUs, improving the LGU electoral system, strengthening the institution
of the community council, and implementing information technology.
For promoting citizens involvement in local decision-making and public administration
and for increasing the publicity of the LGUs activities, it will be important to implement
mechanisms for raising the awareness of community inhabitants and community civil society
institutions, consulting them, and soliciting their feedback, to adopt legislation prescribing
their direct and indirect participation in self-government, to create appropriate conditions for
the exercise of the right to participate, to implement procedures, tools, and techniques of
participation, to encourage participation, and to implement public oversight.
For improving the LGU electoral system and institutional strengthening of the council, it will
be important to develop and implement a policy and strategy on the consolidation of
communities, to enhance the role of political institutions in LGU elections, and to improve
the system of checks and balances between LGUs.
For the introduction of information technologies, it will be important to develop the
capacity of LGUs, to create information society in the communities, to promote e-
participation, to engage public, private, and international resources in the implementation of
ICT in the communities, to adopt legislation and methodologies supporting the
implementation of ICT in the communities, to put in place the technical infrastructure, and to
implement management information systems in the LGUs. The mobilization of resources,
too, will be essential to the successful implementation of the SFDLSGDP.
Based on the above-mentioned, short-term, medium-and long-term problems of the strategic
document of future development of local self-government and decentralization of power can
be summed up according to the table presented below:

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