On October 13, 2006, within the Fourth Annual Meeting of Local Governments in Bulgaria the Foundation for Local Government Reform awarded its 2006 Annual Innovative Municipality Award. The official ceremony was attended by mayors, municipal councillors, municipal experts, USAID/Bulgaria Democracy Officer Gene Gibson.
Mrs. Ginka Kapitanova, Executive Director of FLGR, and Mr. Lachezar Rossenov, Chairman of FLGR Board of Directors, awarded the winners in the competition.
The national prize of Innovative Municipality Award for 2006 was won by the Straldzha Municipality that shared 25 practices.
Mr. Mitko Andonov , mayor of Straldzha Municipality, received the unique statuette that symbolizes climbing the spiral way to a better future. As an additional prize Straldzha Municipality got two airplane return tickets for a European destination. It is an opportunity for 2 municipal employees to participate at an international innovative event. Tickets are provided by IMPERIAL TRAVEL.
Municipality of Svishtov won the second place within Innovative Municipality 2006 Competition. For sharing 11 practices Municipality of Svishtov got a Certificate and program products provided by the Central Laboratory of Computer Graphics and Information Systems Axter, Technical University Sofia.
The third place winner with 8 practices is Municipality of Gourkovo.
Each of the three winning municipalities received as a prize a possibility of training of the administrative staff by FLFR on a selected by the municipality topic.
Municipality of Shumen was honored for presenting a practice that most fully matched the FLGR criteria for an innovative practice: innovation at national level, sustainability, replicability and partnership.
FLGR would like to thank all the innovators who shared their practices in the 2006 competition!
In 2006 FLGR awards for the fifth consecutive year the Innovative Municipality Award.
The winners of the previous contests are:
Municipality of City of Dobrich 2004
Municipality of Svishtov 2005
The innovative practices database is maintained for eight years now and consists of over 890 practices that are available online at www.flgr.bg .
For the period from October 1, 2005, to October 1, 2006, the innovative practices database was expanded with 131 practices (approved out of 160 practices received), shared by 49 municipalities.