The second study visit of the LAR III Project was conducted to Slovenia and Italy on 20-24 January 2020 within the framework of the activity of our Second Component “2.2.3 Improving Transparency and Accountability in Local Administrations”. 14 participants in total, including the officials from the Ministry of Interior, Directorate General for Provincial Administrations and the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, Directorate General for Local Administrations, the representatives from the Union of Municipalities of Turkey and MMs such as Ankara, Erzurum, Istanbul, Izmir, Istanbul, Malatya, Mardin, Muğla Metropolitan Municipalities at the level of Secretary General and Head of Department, as well as the Chief Technical Advisor, M. Ferhat Emil and the Key Expert on Inclusive Local Governance Processes, Gökhan Mehmet Menteş from the UNDP LAR III Project Technical Assistance Team participated in the study visit.
In the Slovenia part of the study visit, the issues such as local administration system in Slovenia and the role of citizen in decision-making processes of local authorities were addressed with the Mayor and Municipal Council Members of Ljubljana, as well as the issue of preventing corruption was discussed and good practices in this area and the related national conjuncture were analyzed in the meeting with the representatives of the Slovenia Branch of the Transparency International through an exchange of views on this matter. The delegation also visited the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption of the Republic of Slovenia and exchanged views with the officials on the legislation and practices in this field. Finally, a technical meeting was held with the relevant experts from the departments responsible for transparency and accountability of the Novo Mesto Municipality on the issues and practices related to public procurements and tender processes of local administrations in the EU system and digitalization of municipal work.
Within the scope of the study visit, our delegation came together with the officials from the Italian Department of Public Administration, the Anti-Corruption, Audit and Transparency Department of the Lombardy Region, the Municipalities of Milan, Vicenza and Schio as well as the representatives of NGOs such as the Italy Branch of the Transparency International and the Avviso Pubblico (Voice of People) which was formed by Mayors against the mafia, and found oppotunity to learn about the local government practices in the fields of audit, guardianship, anti-corruption, action plans for the modernization of public sector and financial transparency in local administrations.
