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PM announces series of measures to reinforce material and human capacities of municipalities

Published the:  04/10/2018

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(TAP) – Prime Minister Youssef Chahed announced Thursday series of measures to reinforce the material and human capacities of the municipalities

Announced on the occasion of the National Day of Local Authorities organised at the Convention Centre in Tunis, these measures aim to strengthen the performance of municipalities in the new role assigned to them to improve the quality of services provided to citizens and meet to their aspirations.

These measures are as follows:

- Establishment of a programme to raise the rate of supervision of municipalities to 15.5% in 2019 and 20% in 2023 against 11% currently.

The aim of this programme is to provide municipalities with executives in priority specialties, such as IT, engineering, architecture, environment and finance, without incurring additional costs as remuneration.

- Adoption of a funding system dedicated to the employment of university graduates in municipalities for a period of five years starting in 2019.

This system is part of a strategic plan that is being developed by the related departments.

Funded jointly by the State and the municipalities concerned, this plan focuses on four main areas:

• First Axis: Facilitate the mobility of civil servants from central and regional administrations to municipalities and the lay-off process for senior staff of central and regional administrations and consider material privileges for these agents up to 50% of their salary.

• Second axis: Create a communal employment bursary to identify all the needs of municipalities in human resources, which facilitates the application of jobseekers and public officials for positions to be filled in full transparency.

• Third axis: Use certain institutions of higher education directly related to municipal work, such as engineering schools and schools of environmental science and technology, as approved training institutions. These institutions will allow municipalities to proceed with direct recruitment in priority specialties according to a mechanism defined by government decree. The amount of remuneration will be shared equally by the Ministry of Local Affairs, Environment and Municipalities for a period of 4 years, after which the municipalities assume the total cost of wages.

• Fourth axis: Make extensive use of work experience internship (SIVP) contracts to provide municipalities with an additional recruitment mechanism in the priority specialties. In addition to the bonuses in force, the trainee will receive an additional bonus.

- Commitment of the Government to finalise the legal and regulatory texts implementing the provisions of the Local Government Code (38 government decrees and two laws) within the deadlines set by the Code, i.e. 9 months.

- Extension of three years 2020-2022 of the duration of the urban development programme and local authorities.

The State will contribute to the financing of this programme in the form of aid worth a total of about 350 million dinars.

- Mobilisation of investment funds worth 852 million dinars for the benefit of 86 new municipalities and 187 other municipalities whose territorial borders have been enlarged.

These funds have been mobilised in the form of grants as part of cooperation with the European Union and Italy or in the form of credits granted by Germany and other countries.

- Increase of 350 to 400 million dinars of the amount of the transfers of the State in annual financial subsidy in the draft budget of the State for the year 2019.

- Establishment of an action plan that provides for the completion of 30 projects during the five-year period 2018-2022.

These projects concern the digitisation of municipal services, especially those intended for citizens. This action plan is part of the implementation of modern governance mechanisms and the enshrining of the principles of transparency and accountability.

Several priority projects are underway, namely the Local Athorities Portal, which should provide a range of electronic services to municipalities and citizens, the project of the unique national identifier, the upgrade of the system of the registry and the building permit management system and the establishment of a system for monitoring the activities of elected councils