Albania undertook the territorial reform in 2015 with the main goal of reducing the administrative burden and improving public services.<\/p>\n
Despite this fact, municipalities account for a significant share of total public employment compared to the region.<\/p>\n
A study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) highlighted that local authorities in Albania employ 30% of public sector workers.<\/p>\n
This percentage is lower in Serbia, where local authorities employ 15% of public sector workers. In Montenegro, it is 24%, in North Macedonia 16%, and in Kosovo 33%, with the highest share of local government employment in total public sector employment.<\/p>\n
Efficiency improvement in resource utilization is a continuous challenge for municipalities worldwide, including in developed countries.<\/p>\n
In Albania, the expansion of the range of local public services to be performed by municipalities in 2015 significantly increased personnel, and consequently, their personnel expenses.<\/p>\n
At the end of 2022, the budget with its own funds for personnel expenses of municipalities reached a level of around 25 billion lek, increasing by about 5% compared to the previous year and representing about 43% of the expenditures with their own funds for the same period.<\/p>\n
This is the highest historical level recorded for personnel expenses with municipalities\u2019 own funds, partly influenced by the increase in the number of employees in municipalities by around 5.3% annually at the end of 2022.<\/p>\n
On average, for an employee in municipalities in 2022, around 56,868 lek per month were spent, about 1% less than the previous year.<\/p>\n
The average cost per employed varies in an interval with a maximum average value of about 70,915 lek in the Rrogozhina municipality and a minimum average value of about 32,917 lek per month in the Memaliaj municipality.<\/p>\n
Around 72% of municipalities (44\/61 municipalities) are assessed to have an average cost per employed below the average value for 61 municipalities.<\/p>\n
Compared to the reference level used by the World Bank of fewer than 25 employees per 1,000 residents, it appears that 51 municipalities have a low level below the reference.<\/p>\n
In contrast, 8\/61 municipalities (Dropull, Fush\u00eb-Arr\u00ebz, Memaliaj, P\u00ebrmet, K\u00eblcyr\u00eb, Skrapar, Puk\u00eb, Tepelen\u00eb) exceed this reference level, suggesting an overstaffing of employees in relation to the municipality\u2019s population.<\/p>\n
However, expenses incurred by municipalities account for 9% of total general government expenses. The local CO-plan report shows that decentralization indicators in the expenditure direction in 2022 slowed down.<\/p>\n
Coverage of current expenditures (for personnel, operational, and other expenses) continues to significantly absorb resources (with own and earmarked funds).<\/p>\n
The investment component presents high variability, depending on the contribution from earmarked investment funds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Albania undertook the territorial reform in 2015 with the main goal of reducing the administrative burden and improving public services. Despite this fact, municipalities account for a significant share of total public employment compared to the region. A study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) highlighted that local authorities in Albania employ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":63298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[250],"tags":[270,300,243,151,5408,460,805,298,5406,513,301,5407],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n