United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

Despite the many international efforts and the fact that most countries including Slovakia at least set out rules and legislation for people responsible for running public organizations and decision making, the public processes still happen largely behind closed doors. Holes in the fence which should act as a legal protective barrier for municipalities against corruption, are so large they too often allow corrupt predators to slip through with full pockets of public resources without breaking any laws. The limited legislation or ineffective police, prosecution and judiciary permit them to be untouchable. The public therefore loses trust not only in the municipalities but also in other public institutions. The situation in the town of Martin prior to the launch of the project was similar to other Slovak towns. According to the audit carried out by Transparency International Slovakia (TIS), the town hall showed unsatisfactory levels of transparency in almost all of its policy areas and delivery of local public services: public procurement, purchase of goods and services, sale and rent of public properties, recruitment of new employees, solving conflicts of interests, or access to information are all fields in which the Martin Town Hall had acted legally on one hand, but in a non-transparent, inefficient, ineffective way on the other. The public had had only very limited options to control its elected representatives or Town Hall employees. What is more, the mayor himself had found contracts left behind by his predecessor which had been very inefficient for the town. Tenders had previously been won only be a small group of contractors and were heavily overpriced. Furthermore, the mayor himself had been approached by public procurement bidders who tried to pressure and corrupt him.
When seeking solutions that would improve the existing state, the Mayor of Martin found a partner in the organization - Transparency International Slovakia. With its assistance, the town was able to launch a project titled “Transparent Town”. The project maximizes the level of transparency with the municipality employees as well as its elected officials. The project therefore minimizes the room for corrupt behavior in these processes. Thanks to the proposed measures, the decisions affecting the efficiency of the handling of public resources and properties are done transparently. The project has provided tools that the public can use to monitor the activities of the public sector; it has an opportunity to analyze and follow up with active participation. However, regaining public trust has proved a much more challenging task than introducing transparency and implementing new rules and measures at the town hall.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
Even though corruption is hard to be expressed in numbers, the comparable indicator of the success of the project is certainly the saving of the public finances. The project voluntarily initiated standards, which go way above the mandatory legislature. One of the measures is an introduction of electronic auctions into the process of procurement. To make the procurement fully transparent, all information regarding the tenders is available 24/7 on an internet domain www.transparentnemesto.sk. After the launch of electronic auctions, the financial sums that won the auctions have gone rapidly down. The saved costs for the first twelve months represent 25%. So if we realize that the methodology for calculating the anticipated costs has not changed and the only change was the launch of electronic auctions, we can clearly state that reached cost savings are a direct result of one of the measures of our anticorruption project – the electronic auctions. Same principle is applied to the sale of town properties or a selection of renters of town real estate. The result is not only a fully transparent process that minimizes room for corruption; it also maximizes financial efficiency of public resources. Another number we can compare is the attendance of the website www.transparentnemesto.sk that shows the quantitative increase in interest and participation of the public in public services. The new domain, which the project launched as one of the most effective tools for eliminating room for corruption, provides constant access to all information. It lists all contracts, invoices, tenders, filling of vacant job positions, purchase of all services and goods, budget, allocation of town apartments to those in need, ethical standards for the town representatives and employees, town’s grant programs, zoning plan or documents approved by the Town Council. The attendance of the website has grown every month since its launch in July 2009. Before our website had in average 8 thousand visitors per month. In December 2009, the attendance grew to 11.5 thousand visitors - more than 40% increase. We now get to the qualitative benefits. It is a general trend that the public’s interest in what is going on in public services is decreasing. The common argument of the public is a lack of trust in decision making of elected officials, which is done in a nontransparent manner, many a time behind closed doors and with unclear rules. On one hand, the transparent town website’s main goal is to secure a full transparency and to narrow down the space for corruption when the town representatives or employees of public institutions make decisions. On the other hand, it provides the public with tools for monitoring and possible analysis of decision processes. The public may thus evaluate, react and comment on the course of events in public services. The added value to all this should be the regaining of the public’s trust in the performance of public officials, which shall directly reflect in the public’s participation in the public issues around them.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
After becoming the mayor, Andrej Hrnciar met with contracts that were disadvantageous to the town. Some decisions of his predecessors and their administration, maybe unintentionally but nevertheless, showed deficiencies as to the following the public’s interest. The public just simply named public services and governmental sector a feeding ground to corruption. Andrej Hrnciar began to meet with nontransparent influences that tried to affect the decision making process of the mayor, elected town representatives as well as employees of the town hall. When searching for possible solutions that would restrict such behaviors, he met with the representatives of the local branch of the internationally renowned organization Transparency International Slovensko (TIS). Here he came across with a will to cooperate on a project that would complexly solve the problem of corruption. At this point, it was out there in the open that such project was being prepared. On the town level, the financing of the project that would cover the work of internal and external team members of TIS was an issue that needed to be solved. The only way for this was to approve the necessary sum of money from the town’s budget by members of the Town Council. In the opposite case, even with the effort of the mayor, the project would have been left without financial coverage. Even at this point it was helpful that the whole process took place transparently and that Council members during voting on the project felt they were watched by the public. Public support of the then-Ambassador of the United States of America to Slovakia, His Excellency Vincent Obsitnik, and the public’s opinion it helped to impress, was a huge help too. After approval of the necessary finances, the signing of contract could have taken place between the town of Martin and TIS. In the first phase, TIS came with 17 most corruption-sensitive town policies. In the next step, TIS in cooperation with town hall employees worked out actual measures that implemented the project into procedures and internal town regulations. Based on the results accomplished so far, one can justly declare that all, whom are in any way connected to the public service, will benefit from the project. The public appreciates the transparency of the municipality processes, opportunity to monitor, analyze and participate in the services and last but not least, the more efficient use of public resources, which are gained by taxation and various fees. The elected municipality representatives and employees value the fact that due to transparency, the rules based on which they execute their duties and responsibilities are clear. On one hand, it frees them from the effort of being manipulated into decisions they would not want to take, and on the other hand, it helps them build a clean record and trust in their work performance on behalf of public interest.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Step by step process: A) Start point was a decision of Mayor Andrej Hrnciar B) Town Council agreement to finance this project C) Contract agreement with Transparency International Slovakia (TIS) D) In-depth policies audit The 17 key policies were the subject of the audit: 1. The policy of sale of fixed and non-fixed assets 2. The policy of rent of fixed and non-fixed assets 3. The policy of hiring new employees for the town hall and other town organizations 4. The policy of public’s participation in municipality decision making 5. The policy of access to information on how the municipality runs 6. The policy of ethics – ethical infrastructure and conflict of interests for elected town representatives 7. The policy of ethics – ethical infrastructure and conflict of interests for town employees 8. The policy of ethics – ethical infrastructure and conflict of interests for town organizations’ employees 9. The media policy 10. The policy of zoning plan and building office 11. Additional town policy 12. The policy of transparency with corporate entity founded by the town 13. The policy of procurement 14. The policy of concluding the Public Private Partnerships 15. The policy of assigning the apartments 16. The policy of assigning rooms in social institutions of which the town is a grantor 17. The policy of preparing the budget and informing the public of the issue Next steps: A) Preparation of specific anticorruption measures B) Preparation of town laws and regulations C) Approval by the Town Council D) Training and implementation Project’s main objective is to increase the transparency in the decision making processes way above the mandatory scope given by law resulting in an increased public engagement in the governance and accountability, to increase the information flow to the citizens and minimize the potential space for corruption. The increase in information flow should ensure better public access to the policy making in the town. An important step to the future is an implementation of the already existing Digital Town project. As of today, the most effective tool is the eBIT auctions: An advantage of the online auction is the support of online processes when issuing the invitation to tenders and choosing proposals. It also allows for the purchases at actual prices, increases transparency of supplier relations and solves supervision of town employees responsible for the purchases. The authentication of the user is assured by generating the login and password during the registration process each user has to go through (login and password are generated as a combination of letters and numbers). At each logging in to eBIT portal or eBIT client, the user must use these login data. All communication is encrypted. Participants are presented by code which changes during auction and of course from auction to auction. eBIT auctions are a huge benefit. It assists in saving procurement costs, decreases expenses for the purchase procedure, shortens the time between announcing a tender and purchase itself, and it restricts the space for corruption to minimum.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
First phase: May 2008 – August 2008 includes an audit of selected policies of the town A vote of the Town Council in May 2008 presents official start of the project. July and August 2008 - diagnosis of an existing state of corruption, the outcome of the audit was a 60-page document titled “The Report from the audit of the policies of the town of Martin”, in which TIS identified 17 key policies that might have an effect on the extent of corruption in the town. Second phase: September 2008 – April 2009 includes preparation and approval of anticorruption measures in selected town policies through introduction and processing of the actual suggestions of anticorruption standards, part of the project carried on with the already running project named “Digital Town” – the e-Government concept on a municipality level – and e-Democracy. The outcome of the second phase of the project was a 130-page document titled “The Proposal of the anticorruption measures for the Town of Martin”, which contains a set of anticorruption recommendations. In February 2009, this material was introduced to the Town Council’s committees. In April 2009, the Mayor called for a special assembly of the Town Council that dealt exclusively with an implementation of the measures resulting from the audit of TIS. The meeting was broadcasted live via town television and on the town’s own website. Third phase: May 2009 – Up-to-date: implementation of accepted measures in everyday life In June 2009, the town of Martin commenced the Ethical Code for all employees. The main objective is to define the rules for an impartial execution of work while specifying the rights and responsibilities of the town employees as basics for building the trust of the public in their work, hiring of employees in the Town Hall as well as other town organizations has been executed according to the procedure that specifies the selection of members to a decision committee. It also specifies ways of informing about vacant job positions, the actual course of selecting the candidate. On July 4, 2009, the town launched a new domain www.transparentnemesto.sk and electronic auction house martin.ebit.sk, via which the electronic auctions are carried out. In the first twelve months electronic auctions have saved 25% of anticipated costs, which makes Martin’s anticorruption package not only a remedy for corruption, but it also effectively eases the impact of the economic crisis on the municipality budget. Some of further measures launched in 2010: Open days in Mayor’s office on monthly basis, online Mayor’s e-diary, Day´s of town borough on monthly basis – town officials meetings with citizens in their neighborhood begin with walk through streets and ends with public meetings, online map of electronic auctions (www.transparentnemesto.sk/mapa), electronic online procurement mandatory also for low budget investments (400 - 3000 eur), town hall’s own electronic auctions house available also for non profit organizations and civic societies established in town, massive campaign carried out in 3 steps used to inform local citizens about the project and tools they can use to monitor town officials.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
For the project, the Mayor first needed to find a partner who had experience and professional expertise necessary for qualified evaluation of the corruption issue. Because neither the Mayor nor the municipality had no reach or the competency over this partner, his decision to cooperate on this project must have been voluntary. Ideally, the partner was to be a subject of high reputation. In Slovakia, the ideal partner was found in the Slovak branch of the internationally renowned organization Transparency International (TIS), which fulfilled the first condition of launching a successful preparation process. One of the most significant moments was the communication with the members of the Town Council, who were the only people with needed competency. In the next steps, the members also had to vote with more than half of all votes in order to approve the proposed measures, which could thus replace the existing procedures and internal regulations managing the course of the municipality. Public opinion also played an important role, when a general belief of corruption in connection to public services had tired people. Cooperation with TIS, as well as personal involvement of the US Ambassador to Slovakia, His Excellency Vincent Obsitnik, both proved to be of great aid to the project. The use of transparency in these initial steps came to be an effective tool that can affect the decision making processes of elected officials. Right from the beginning the public had a sufficient amount of information on the project and even those officials, whose personal beliefs would not have led them to support the project, did in fact support it as they realized that their disapproval with the prepared project would have to be voiced out loud to public. Such public and open disapproval would have most probably caused serious consequences in the upcoming elections. In all other steps, the Mayor could rely on his competencies and rights that allowed and assured him that all other parts of the project will be executed by the municipality and town hall employees. In other words, from his position he was able to ensure the execution of the project with direct orders to his subordinates – municipality employees. For a complete picture, it must be added that some of the proposed measures ensuring the transparency at decision making processes met with obstacles from the legislation point of view. Specifically the disclosure of personal data of employees and elected officials, their family members as well as personal data of all candidates applying for a job with the municipality. Such disclosure of personal information in proposed extent would require consent of all involved people. To give an example and to best describe the situation: During a hiring process, the municipality would, under an anticorruption measure, have an obligation to identify and thus disclose all personal information on all candidates. According to the legislation, it is possible only with consent of involved person. To expect that unsuccessful candidates would provide such permission to disclose their personal data would be naïve.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Direct financial costs were only needed to pay out the work of internal and external employees of Transparency International Slovensko (TIS). The contracted pay was in the amount of 23 thousand EUR, which the Town Council approved and was thus fully paid out from the town’s budget. The human resources from the municipality played an irreplaceable role. The expert employees from various fields have fulfilled the necessary tasks needed for the preparation and execution of the project within their work hours. The tasks were and are assigned according to employees’ job description, resulting from organization structure in the town hall, with concrete deadlines and orders from their direct superiors all the way to the Mayor. As all employees have been fulfilling the tasks during their regular work hours, no additional finances were necessary. The used technical tools were the property of the town and in full extent covered the needs of the project. No additional technical resources were necessary and thus no additional finances were required. Technical resources used in the project were the municipality offices with standard furniture and needed electronic devices, mainly desktop computers. A special group of technical means were the town’s fleet cars that were used for business trips.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The sustainability of the project anticipates a political will coming from the public interest that protects the project. As the project introduced anticorruption measures that go way beyond the mandatory legislation, their acceptance was voluntary. In theory, will of elected officials would be enough to repeal all changes the project has brought. However, if the elected representatives decided for such steps, in reality it would mean a political suicide. The needed steps would have to be done – thanks to measures that the projects brought on – transparently, publicly. On top of that the uniqueness, success and real positive results of the project have gained a lot of attention and popularity among the public and the media. The project is becoming a better and better example for other municipalities from local level to the very top one, including the ministries and governmental institutions. The project does not restrict any time limits for changes and measures introduced into everyday life. That is why one can justly expect that the sustainability of the project is assured up until the time when the public service still understands the concepts like transparency, corruption or responsibility. Transferability of the project, generally in the public sector but also at other levels and other institutions, is ensured by mechanisms that the project encounters. The fundamentals of the decision making in the public sector are basically the same at all levels. In them, elected officials and employees of public institutions make selections that determine public resources and tangible assets they govern. Space thus created for possible corruption is directly proportional to the level of transparency with which the decisions are made. This further sets the level of public interest and a level of responsibility and public trust. It also must be added that almost every week the municipality of Martin is contacted by representatives of other municipalities because of the “Transparent Town” project. Logically, public demand arises and with it a pressure on other municipalities at various levels to also realize a similar project. In many cases, an information exchange has been ongoing. A number of municipalities already contacted TIS to carry out the same transparent town project. Other municipalities have started the project on their own based on the materials available online at the Transparent Town project website. Furthermore, the national government considers the Transparent Town project as a case study for other municipalities and currently proposes and plans new legislation which includes anticorruption policies which were successfully implemented in Martin. Perhaps most importantly, the recent November 2010 municipal election showed that the people of Martin wish the Transparent Town project to be sustainable. The mayor, Andrej Hrnciar, who was the initiator and a guardian of the project won the election with an overwhelming majority and received a strong mandate to continue with the project. Being an independent candidate, it also gave him a strong position in order to discuss and propose new anticorruption measures at the newly elected Town Council.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The initial assumption was an experience with unsatisfactory transparency in the public services and consequences: corruption, loss of trust, insufficient control and monitoring from the public, insufficient participation of the public on decision making processes. When seeking solutions that would improve the existing state, the Mayor of Martin found a partner in the organization - Transparency International Slovensko (TIS). With its assistance, the town was able to launch a project titled “Transparent Town”. The project maximizes the level of transparency with the municipality employees as well as its elected officials. Public procurement, purchase of goods and services, sale and rent of public properties, recruitment of new employees, solving conflicts of interests, or access to information are all fields in which institutions at all levels of public sector make important decisions every day. The project on the other hand minimizes the room for corrupt behavior in these processes. Thanks to the proposed measures, the decisions affecting the efficiency of the handling of public resources and properties are done transparently. The project has provided tools that the public can use to monitor the activities of the public sector; it has an opportunity to analyze and follow up with active participation. The project has a direct impact on all who are part of the public life. The public can efficiently monitor, be more competent in evaluating, and react and comment the course of the municipality. The added value is regaining of trust in the performance of public services which is reflected in higher participation of citizens in public matters. From the employees and elected officials point of view, the project transparently sets clear rules at decision making processes, for which the public sector is responsible. It minimizes space for possible corrupt behavior. In order to support these qualitative attributes with quantitative indicators, one should first mention the introduction of electronic auctions. In the first twelve months, the town was able to save 25% of anticipated costs. Directly connected to the project is the increase of attendance of project’s Internet website (accessible through the town website), where information on all decisions and their consequences is listed and made public. Everyone thus has a 24/7 access to all invoices, contracts, tenders, procurement, or approved documentation. The numbers showed a 40% increase of website users after the introduction of the project website. This also reflects increased public participation. Interestingly, foreign investors increasingly choose the area of Martin as a final destination of their investments. One of the reasons of their particular interest is the project, which guarantees that when dealing with necessary administrative processes at the town hall, it is very unlikely they will come across any corrupt behavior. Martin and its project has indeed had a tremendous impact. Media, representatives of other Slovak municipalities, national politicians, and even the public now recognize Martin as a “transparent town”. The big lesson learnt is though, that it often takes a will of just a single person to bring about such an impact and make a difference.


Institution Name:		Town hall of Martin
Institution Type:		Other
Contact Person:		Jozef Petras
Title:		spokesperson
Telephone/ Fax:		+421905573452
Institution's / Project's Website:		+421434132483
E-mail:		petras@martin.sk
Address:		Nam S. H. Vajanskeho 1
Postal Code:		03649
City:		Martin
State/Province:
Country:		Slovakia

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information