Competition for the Annual Good Governance Award Published

On 29 January 2020, the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government published the Competition for the 2019 Best City/Municipal Administration Annual Award. The Public Competition will be open 20 days from the day of publication in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia (No. 7/20 of 29 January 2020). 

The first National Annual Award for Best Practices in Applying Good Governance Principles at the Local Level in 2018 was introduced at the initiative of the Ministry and the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM), with the support of the Swiss Government Programme “Enhancing Good Governance and Social Inclusion for Municipal Development – Swiss PRO”. The Ministry competition, for the second year in a row, facilitates the establishment of this Serbian Government long-term measure encouraging and empowering local self-governments to continuously work on improving the quality of services the public sector is extending citizens and businesses.

The Annual Best Practice Awards are awarded in four categories: Efficiency and Effectiveness; Transparency and Public Participation in the Work of the Local Self-Government; Accountability and Rule of Law; and Equality and Non-Discrimination. The Ministry will award the winners 10,400,000 RSD from the Budgetary Local-Self Government Program Fund. Winners in each of the four categories will be entitled to a financial award in the amount of 2,600,000 RSD.

In addition to the Ministry Budgetary Fund, the winners of the Competition will also be awarded funds by SCTM from the Swiss PRO budget. A total of 3,840,000 RSD allocated for the Annual Awards will be divided equally among the four winners, in accordance with the Public Competition requirements.

The Application Form for the Best City/Municipal Administration Award is available on the Ministry website and must be submitted electronically to the following e-mail address: godisnja.nagrada@mduls.gov.rs. The eligible local self-governments need not apply separately for the additional funds.

The applications will be evaluated against predefined criteria by a commission comprising representatives of the Ministry, the SCTM and Swiss PRO Programme. After the evaluation, the commission will draft a decision on the award of the Annual Awards in each of the four categories and submit it for adoption to the Minister in charge of local self-government affairs.

The Ministry will conclude agreements with the winning LSGs on the grants from the Budgetary Fund and transfer the approved amounts to them. The SCTM will conclude separate agreements with the Competition winners on the donation of funds allocated from Swiss PRO budget.  

The text of the Public Call and the Application Form are available (in Serbian language only) on the Ministry website, as well as in the documents attached to this page together with the official Notice for local governments competing for the Annual Award.