Innovative practices in Bulgaria
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Out-of-Office Workdays of the Municipal Administration of the City of Smolyan
Municipality of Smolyan
Background
The general view of municipal administration is that it is not able to respond rapidly and effectively to the citizens needs and demands, - the citizens of Smolyan were of the same opinion. The citizens waste too much time to visit the municipality and ask for a certain service, to obtain the required documents from the different departments, or to have a certificate issued. The lack of funds to set up a modern computerized information center at the Municipality of Smolyan necessitated the introduction of other means and resources in order to provide easy and rapid services to the citizens. One of this means is the out-of-office workdays of the municipal administration, Smolyan.
The general view of municipal administration is that it is not able to respond rapidly and effectively to the citizens needs and demands, - the citizens of Smolyan were of the same opinion. The citizens waste too much time to visit the municipality and ask for a certain service, to obtain the required documents from the different departments, or to have a certificate issued. The lack of funds to set up a modern computerized information center at the Municipality of Smolyan necessitated the introduction of other means and resources in order to provide easy and rapid services to the citizens. One of this means is the out-of-office workdays of the municipal administration, Smolyan.
Practice
This practice of the municipal administration of the city of Smolyan was introduced in the first year of the mandate of mayor Kostadin Chatalbashev as a manifestation of strong local government. It met the citizen s desire to have an easy access to administrative and technical services. It expresses also the aspiration of the municipal administrators to involve the citizens interest in solving municipal problems.
The "Architecture, Construction and Public Works" Department in the municipal administration is one of the key spots for work with the citizens. Almost every citizen of the municipality has sought administrative and technical service for some reason or another. Consequently, the main problem in the beginning of the mandate was to shorten the period of time and to raise the quality of such services. In 1998 only, 3164 applications and petitions (more than 40 per cent) out of a total of 7388 were filed in this Department.
To move the services closer to the citizens and thus save time and money for traveling to the municipal center, the authorities introduced out-of-office workdays in settlements. The introduction of such offices was prompted by the needs themselves. In 1997, each Thursday was declared an out-of-office workday outside the administration building. The teams of experts comprised other experts, too, but most frequently people visited the offices with problems related to construction and architecture, and to social security.
The first office was set up in the Ustovo quarter the area with most numerous citizens petitions. The out-of-office reception rooms yielded results also in bigger settlements Momchilovtsi, Smilyan, Shiroka Luka, Petkovo, Slaveyno, Mogilitsa, Arda, Turun, Vievo, Kutelo, and Stoykite. In the on-the-spot offices problems were solved for which people had been waiting for a long time. Most frequently these were problems of surveys, settlement planning, garbage collection, explaining the new regulative acts, consultations, etc. All these out-of-office reception rooms were the result of signals from the local mayors who had recorded the accumulated tension on a certain problem and had sent signals to the Municipality of Smolyan. When the municipality receives new signals from the local mayors, the teams of experts are ready to visit once again the quarters and the villages and to provide services to the citizens.
This practice of the municipal administration of the city of Smolyan was introduced in the first year of the mandate of mayor Kostadin Chatalbashev as a manifestation of strong local government. It met the citizen s desire to have an easy access to administrative and technical services. It expresses also the aspiration of the municipal administrators to involve the citizens interest in solving municipal problems.
The "Architecture, Construction and Public Works" Department in the municipal administration is one of the key spots for work with the citizens. Almost every citizen of the municipality has sought administrative and technical service for some reason or another. Consequently, the main problem in the beginning of the mandate was to shorten the period of time and to raise the quality of such services. In 1998 only, 3164 applications and petitions (more than 40 per cent) out of a total of 7388 were filed in this Department.
To move the services closer to the citizens and thus save time and money for traveling to the municipal center, the authorities introduced out-of-office workdays in settlements. The introduction of such offices was prompted by the needs themselves. In 1997, each Thursday was declared an out-of-office workday outside the administration building. The teams of experts comprised other experts, too, but most frequently people visited the offices with problems related to construction and architecture, and to social security.
The first office was set up in the Ustovo quarter the area with most numerous citizens petitions. The out-of-office reception rooms yielded results also in bigger settlements Momchilovtsi, Smilyan, Shiroka Luka, Petkovo, Slaveyno, Mogilitsa, Arda, Turun, Vievo, Kutelo, and Stoykite. In the on-the-spot offices problems were solved for which people had been waiting for a long time. Most frequently these were problems of surveys, settlement planning, garbage collection, explaining the new regulative acts, consultations, etc. All these out-of-office reception rooms were the result of signals from the local mayors who had recorded the accumulated tension on a certain problem and had sent signals to the Municipality of Smolyan. When the municipality receives new signals from the local mayors, the teams of experts are ready to visit once again the quarters and the villages and to provide services to the citizens.
Results
After the visits of the architecture and territorial and settlement structure experts on the places from where signals were received, the Municipal administration of Smolyan has registered the following promising results:
Ю Decrease in the number of citizens from the villages visiting the municipality building;
Ю Relief of tension created by on-the-spot unsolved problems.
After the visits of the architecture and territorial and settlement structure experts on the places from where signals were received, the Municipal administration of Smolyan has registered the following promising results:
Ю Decrease in the number of citizens from the villages visiting the municipality building;
Ю Relief of tension created by on-the-spot unsolved problems.
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