Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 18th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview IV. Working Group on PA Reform Author(s) Galima Eshmukhamedova I do not belong to any Institution Moscow Russian Federation Title Administrative - territorial reforms in the Kyrgyz Republic File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract The article is devoted to Public Administration reforms leading to democratic rights in the Kyrgyz Republic. The democratic principles fully depend on the scale of the development of civil society. Based on the analyses and research the following conclusions can be done: - The administrative-territorial reforms are ongoing in the Kyrgyz Republic; - the administrative changes are implemented; - transfer from four level to three level system; - overlapping of tasks and functions take place; - lack of qualified specialists on a primary level; The necessity of administrative-territorial reforms is evident. But it is not a short-term activity. It should be done stage by stage and very carefully. The main tasks of them are: - establishing administrative-territorial tools responding to the tasks of a democratic society. - decentralization and clear division of functions, authorities, finance between state administration and local self-governments. - Increasing the role of the primary level. Some positive results were made during that time. The system of two level budget was implemented. Aiyl Okmotu money is not redistributed by the rayon. It stays in local self-governments. The income increased two times in 2007. And the people know better how to spend it, what the priorities are. E.g in the village Maevka the money was spent to improve the infrastructure: there was no water, in some places there was no electricity, the roads were in a very bad condition. The Aiyl Okmotu spent the money for those purposes. And the people see the positive results. The local budget increased to 113%. But the problems on the primary level is the lack of qualified specialists. The salary of officials was quite low and people moved to towns. In 2008 the President approved the law "On Elimination of Administrative-territorial Units located on the territories of the republican and oblast significance towns”. Based on the law it was supposed to make larger the territories, to join some rayon and aiyl okmotus. It was supposed to reduce the number of rayons from 40 to 25-27, aiyl okmotu – from 472 to 300-320. It was supposed to reduce the number of oblast structures to 4-7 times. As the result in 2008 more than 120 oblast structures and 13 aiyl okmotu were reduced. The number of oblast structures reduced from 260 to 136 and the number of authorities reduced from 6120 to 4343. As for primary level the number of aiyl okmotu reduced from 472 t0 459 and the number of authorities reduced to 180 people and now they are 8107. The second stage of the reform started in 2009 and finishes in 2010. In September 2009 the president of the KR Mr. Bakiev criticized authorities and mentioned about large-scale reforms. Some measures were done in this part. The positions of a state secretary and president’s advisers were reduced. The tasks and functions of the President’s administration will be transferred to the government. In reality they overlap functions and tasks. Decision making process is too long and people sometimes wait for solving their problems years. The state servants should be professional and they should serve the people. A lot of authorities have old approach to their tasks and functions that came from the soviet era. The KR needs authorities with modern and professional mentality oriented to building democratic society. To attract qualified authorities and increase their interest in work the President increased their salaries from 50 to 270%. A year ago it was 1 300 soms and nowadays it is 3 300 soms. The civil servants had to prove their qualifications. 4412 civil servants were attested by 2008. 4 % didn’t prove their qualifications and were not attested. But more often attestation is formal. Thus we see that some activities were done in administrative sphere but not in territorial. The third stage will start in 2010 and finishes in 2012. It is supposed to change the four level system to three level system.
