Kostina N.A.

Chairperson of Information and Analysis Department of Executive staff of Poltava Regional Council, postgraduate student of National Academy for public administration under the President of Ukraine

"Experience of the project activity of local government of Poltava region within the National contest of projects and programs of local government for the period 2011-2014 years"

Problem setting. As the experience of Western democracies shows, a project approach takes an extremely important place in the implementation of local development strategies. It helps orderly and systematically to implement the strategic priorities of the territory and achieve socio-economic benefits of the local community, especially in terms of resource constraints. The development of local self-government in Ukraine is constrained primarily by economic factors, lack of sufficient material and financial resources for implementing tasks and functions of local government.

Development and implementation of joint projects involve greater number of people in order to cooperate, to increase interest of people in issues of local government, and to establish feedback from the community. Understanding of self-involvement in the territorial communities and opportunity to participate in solving local problems is an indicator of the prevailing civil society. Today the usage of project technology is of particular relevance, because experience shows that implementing project management tools are carried out unsystematic and irregular.

Recent research and publications analysis. Using the project approach in public administration and local self-government were proposed by several authors, among which worth mentioning are Y.Sharov , O.Tertyshna etc. However, despite of the relatively wide range of research, problems of local government need constant improvement and further research due to finding new and innovative management practices and building a new system of governance in the country at different levels.

Paper objective. The article aims to analyze the project activity of local government of Poltava region within the National contest of projects and programs of local government for the period 2011-2014 years, and identify the ways of improving the usage of project-based technologies in the work of local government of Poltava region to attract more members and improve the quality of projects in the National contest of projects and programs of local government in 2014.

Paper main body. The National contest of projects and programs of local government (hereinafter - the competition) is an effective tool, which allows in a project way to solve local problems by active and competent representatives of local government.

The aim of the contest is the selection of projects and programs of local government that are financed from the state budget, local budgets and other sources that are not prohibited by law and aimed at solving common problems in local government development and dissemination of positive experience gained during their implementation.

The main objectives of the competition are:

- Development of cooperation of local governments, businesses and civil society organizations in the development and implementation of projects and programs of local governments;

- Creation of fund supports projects and programs of local governments;

- Synthesis and dissemination of experience, aimed at solving the problems of local government;

- Improvement of information policy on the development of local government;

- The selection of projects and programs to provide for the state budget for the financial support of local government.

The highest body which provides general guidance on the organization of the Contest is the Council of Competition.

The functions of the Council of the Competition are:

- The decision to declare the Contest;

- Approval of a plan of appropriate organizational and technical measures for the organization of competitions every year;

- Approval of the composition of the Expert Committee and the provisions of the Convention;

- Adoption of the registration of projects (programs), the requirements for and the order of their evaluation;

- Definition of financing activities within the organization and conduct of the Contest;

- Determination of winners;

- Decision on the financing of projects and programs.

During 11 years more than four thousand local governments took part in the competition, 6070 of them have developed programs and projects, 1317 of which were winners and received funding.

Ukrainian contest of 2012 was the largest by the number of participants and projects. In 2012 the selection 752 applications were submitted of 591 local authorities, including 350 rural councils, 96 city councils, 103 district councils, 33 municipal councils of regional significance, 9 regional councils.

Fig. 1 shows the performance changes in the number of the winning projects of local governments of Poltava region in the competition for the period from 2011 to 2014.

Fig. 1. Dynamics of the winning projects from the Poltava region

during 2011-2014

Thus, summarizing the experience of the project activity of local government of Poltava region, the number of winning projects in the first and second categories of the competition for the period has increased, but in the years 2013-2014 in comparison with the year 2012, there was a decrease of the total number of winning projects. There are absolutely no winners in the third, fourth and fifth categories for the period 2013-2014, which is a negative trend, as in these categories there are the largest size of the maximum grant.

An analysis of the experience of the project activity of local government of Poltava region allowed to develop the following recommendations to attract more members and improve the quality of projects in the National contest projects and programs of local government in 2014:

- To conduct an extended sociological research to determine the causes of low activity in the nationwide contest projects and programs of local government.

Our sociological study covered only a part of local government bodies (Shishatskiy, Mashevsky, Zenkovsky areas), therefore it is appropriate to investigate the situation in other parts of the Poltava region, and based on the results to develop the recommendations to improve the current situation.

- To organize series of training sessions to develop regional development projects for officers of local authorities, who are interested in participating in the contest.

- Develop a handbook for development projects of regional best projects practices.

Conclusions of the research. Participating in the National contest of projects and programs of local government, local governments of Poltava region learns more systematically and efficiently to use project technologies in order to solve the problems of local communities. Implementation of project technologies create an enabling environment for sustainable socio-economic development at the local level through self-organization and social revitalization of communities, development and implementation of small-scale community initiatives. But it is necessary to analyze in more detail the financing mechanism for implementation of the projects submitted.

References:

1. Materials of State Fund of supporting local government. - Mode: http://www.municipal.gov.ua/