“The best work is transparency, accountability and the participation of the public.”

This is my conviction and the guiding principle we started out with five years ago in the sector of local self-government. Theoretically, at least, we were able to transform this into a portion of the government’s policy.

A long-term program regional development program was drafted tasked with tackling the overriding problem of increasing the productivity and transparency of local self-government bodies (LSGB). An anti-corruption strategy also was drafted that placed great importance on the transparency of LSGB activities.

As a result of five years of untiring work, we and our partners in the LSGB sector were able to install technical and modern technological methods guaranteeing transparency and public access in the communities. Urban and a small group of large rural communities created their own official websites, either willingly or under coercion. Regional administrations (marzpetaran) also redesigned their websites and installed pubic information boards.

But we failed in our most important task of all – to change the mentality of local community leaders. We failed to impress upon them the fact that they are obligated, by law, to publicly display the decisions taken by local governing bodies. The same law holds true for national state bodies - the government, parliament, the courts, etc.

The RA Ministry of Territorial Administration, with substantial financial assistance from the GTZ organization, installed a system of information reporting in the larger communities. Those community leaders “on the ball” put the system into practice, not only to simplify their workload, but also to present their activities in a more open fashion to residents.

Some leaders were not satisfied with the websites they were given and so they ordered custom-made sites tailored to their tastes. Naturally, the new sites had little to do with local self-governance. They had to do more with form and less with content – Charentsavan, Hrazdan, Gavar, Noyemberyan, and Ijevan. Some community leaders even removed the self-governance program from the computers they were given by the Ministry and replaced them with games.

During the final months, we also worked with some specific communities to stress the importance of the work of the municipal councils in community affairs. Initially, we met with some success in this matter but it was short-lived.

The various schemes employed by an majority of community leaders and certain Regional Administrators (Marzpet) and the childish attitude displayed in an attempt to circumvent their obligations, is nothing less than an overt rejection of the policy itself.

TheVanadzorMunicipality, for example, created a new website that corresponded to the parameters of the law. But the staff failed to publicize the decisions of the municipal council in a timely fashion. So far, the site has only announced the decision taken by the council on February 3, 2012. However, the law states that council sessions must convene every two months. In fact, the Council has convened two more times but the decisions taken haven’t been posted.

The only community website in all of Kotayk Marz to have posted the decisions of all its municipal councils is that of Yeghvard.

Contrary to the website of the Lori Regional Administration, that allows one to follow the decisions taken by local community leaders and councils, the Kotayk Regional Administration site has been under “constant redesign”. This is what Kotayk Regional Administrator Kovalenko Shahgaldyan wrote to us in a letter. This is considered the most transparent of all regional administrations where new technologies are always being tried.

So, what are local community leaders hiding from residents with such care? Why don’t they understand that residents need to be informed as to the decisions taken by the council and not solely about when the council will next meet?

The law provides numerous ways and means for residents to be apprised of local government decisions. The first line of action is the community bulletin boards located on the premises of the municipal office. After this comes the official community and regional administration websites.

Finally, there are the council sessions themselves to which residents and the press have the legal right to attend.

Many urban communities have their press officers and the regional administrations are furnished with entire public affairs divisions. But all these resources are used to put on a “show” for the benefit of the local leaders.

It also turns out that community leaders aren’t merely concealing the decisions of the council from their residents.

For example, take thevillageofGoghovitin Shirak Marz. This year, the village was audited revealing that the community leader had violated provisions of the procedural code and hadn’t sent all enacted legal acts to the RA Ministry of Justice.

The question we need to ask is what will become of those legal acts that have been put into practice without being first reviewed by the Ministry. Aharon Khachatryan, a legal affairs specialist at the Ministry, says that such acts don’t have any legal power. In other words, the Goghovit mayor applied invalid acts for two years. They had never been subject to review or publicized.

In addition, the possibility exists that these legal decisions actually contradict the law itself. There are many cases when the Ministry has returned community decisions for modification before final approval.

Months ago, a Hetq reporter revealed that the Lorout village municipality in Lori had financially assisted a few local residents so that they could pay their taxes. The municipality wanted to post a good collection record for itself.

When the reporter asked the Lorout mayor if local residents were aware of the financial largess, he requested that they be told nothing.