Comments and suggestions about the table organized by IDM on the monitoring of the public consultation

Yesterday, ALTAX, in the framework of the partnership with the network of civil organizations, participated in the meeting called by IDM Albania for a consultative discussion regarding the Monitoring Methodology for the Public Consultation Process in the Central Government, drawn up by its experts.

The purpose of this meeting was to present and validate the instrument, as well as collect contributions from participating organizations to improve the monitoring methodology and its applicability by interested actors.

ALTAX has been invested since at least 2021 in the monitoring and analysis of the progress of local consultations, continuing its work for the years 2022 – 2023, and has concluded that the Municipal Councils and the process of public consultations need more opposition and voices articulated civil expertise with the logic of financial arguments in defense of citizens’ demands.

A need to consider public consultation with a different approach to the law is especially necessary for the decisions of acts of Municipal Councils and Mayors.

In the stages of consultation, civil expertise is missing and there is no opposition or analytical reinforcement of the citizen’s voice and concerns, a situation that is found to be lacking.

Seeing that the qualified comment of the citizen’s voice based on the analysis of facts and arguments is also missing, the consolidated recommendations of civil society organizations and professional organizations, etc., as well as the expertise of different fields, are also clearly missing.

This dialogue and hearing can be directed to civil society organizations with expertise, but also business and professional organizations, as well as labor organizations, which can provide a comment/recommendation closer to the needs of citizens, but can also be potential monitors for the way policies are oriented towards the fulfillment of political commitments and government programs, how the City’s funds and state budget transfers are spent, etc.

The main effort should be directed towards networking the expertise of civil society and professionals at the national level, as a necessary opposition during discussions with an impact on the majority of the regional or national population.

The great and unique value goes towards increasing the quality of the decision-making process, as well as to actually have a participatory budgeting, but also testing an openness of governance based on the principle of inclusiveness.

We have also presented some other suggestions, which we highlight as follows:

– What we express is the fact that the methodology should be extended not only to the central government but also to the local government.

– The public consultation with civil expertise should be based on the amendment of the law on public consultation, so that during the process a session/s with the local civil expertise based only on analysis and facts can be programmed within the Consultation Calendar.

– The public consultation based on several years of monitoring should have a participation threshold of individuals that we will continue to propose to the Committee on Legal Affairs… of the Assembly for legal change along with other proposals listed below.

– It is necessary that the obligation to consult be changed by establishing a condition that the minutes of the consultation are confirmed with arguments by the public representatives.

This approach helps for effective transparency and accountability in the implementation of this law, which remains among the few instruments for public participation in decision-making.

– In order to further factor and strengthen the voice of citizens and in their function, the experts and partners of ALTAX find that Deliberative Dialogue should be introduced as a new mechanism in the communication between citizens and local government.

The deliberative dialogue, included in the report of the year t, also included in the report of the previous year, we insist on seeking as an innovation for a communication based on the common goals identified between citizens and identified interest groups, where people fall agree and use agreement to find a solution to problems.

In the meeting with civil society organizations and other organizations, it was concluded that the recommendations given during this consultation will be analyzed and addressed by the IDM expert team. The final version of the methodology will be published and implemented by IDM during 2024.