Municipal Official Learns the Value of Transparent Government
Few people enjoy paying taxes, particularly if they don’t know where their money is going. Like many municipalities in Azerbaijan, municipal councilors in Piral had little experience in sharing official information, such as budget plans, with local citizens. Taxpayers were uninformed about how their money was being used, and grew distrustful of, and cynical toward, municipal officials.
Nasrulla Nasrullayev, Chairman of the small Azerbaijani municipality of Piral, experienced this firsthand. “In the past,” he lamented, “we went to the houses of our citizens several times to try to collect tax payments. Sometimes, we had to appeal to the courts for assistance in collecting debts or taxes from those who refused to pay.”
 |
| Piral municipality citizens and officials participate in a public budget
hearing |
Since then, and with support from USAID’s Civil Society Project, the Azerbaijani municipality of Piral has opened its budgeting process to public scrutiny and earned local taxpayers’ trust.
In late 2006, the Project began assisting the municipal council and citizens of Piral to engage with each other in more productive ways. Project grantees, the Economic Research Center (ERC) and Potential, collaborated with Piral municipal officials and civic leaders to improve the municipal budgeting process and open deliberations to the public. Budget experts from ERC installed a computer with budgeting and database software in the Piral municipal offices and provided training on the budget process.
In November and December of 2006, Piral held a budget roundtable for civic leaders and an open budget hearing for citizens to learn about previous municipal activities and to provide their input into the 2007 budget. The fresh water system was raised as a major concern at the hearings; municipal officials responded by including funds to repair damaged water pipes in the budget. The finalized budget was posted at the municipal office for all to see—a first for Piral and an unusual degree of disclosure among Azerbaijani municipalities.
In addition to helping the municipality improve the allocation of its budget funds, the hearings also increased the level of trust and goodwill between citizens and municipal officials. According to Nasrullayev, 97 percent of households have paid their taxes following the open budget process. “Sixteen citizens who had owed taxes for over six years have now paid their taxes. An elderly man who had previously refused to ever visit the town hall to pay his taxes did so this year for the first time,” he said.
Back to Top ^ |
