The prospective local authority reform in Cyprus

Abstract

Local Authority’s reform consists one of the major issues that are of concern to the State and the society. Following various researches and surveys carried out by Cypriot and foreign experts, the Ministry of Interior submitted a draft Law which proposes the establishment of “Secondary Bodies”.

In the framework of this master thesis, a theoretical approach of the various types of reforms that took place in other European countries is developed in order to raise a general awareness on European patterns of reforms. Furthermore, the various studies carried out in the framework of Local Authority’s reform in Cyprus are analyzed in order to present the alternative proposals.

This master thesis primarily aims to present the satisfaction level of both citizens and Mayors/Municipal Secretaries from the services provided by Local Authority and more precisely the municipalities. The next stage evaluates the effects of the perspective enactment of the draft Law from both groups, in order to clarify whether the draft Law introduces and promotes best practices for the improvement of the current situation and its assessment whether it constitutes the ideal reform form for the Local Authority in Cyprus.

For the purposes of the thesis, two online questionnaires were used as the research tool for the collection of empirical data. The first one addressed to citizens and the second one to Mayors/Municipal Secretaries.

According to the empirical and quantitative data of the research the main conclusions are as follows:

- The satisfaction level from services provided by Local Authority has been assessed as mediocre - The bad economic status of municipalities which results from the decrease in revenues and the expenditures remaining at a constant level, and the financial dependency on Central Government - Identification of problems impeding the Local Authority’s work, such as bureaucracy, red tape and political parties’ intervention - The results from the enactment of the proposed draft Law are expected to turn slightly more positive in certain sectors and slightly negative in other sectors - The relationship between citizens and Local Authority weakens - Bureaucracy, red tape and political parties’ intervention continues indefinitely - The draft Law is rejected in general by the respondents - Inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) in the form of cluster is proposed as the optimal reform