Համայնքների խոշորացման ազդեցությունը ՏԻՄ լիազորությունների արդյունավետ իրականացման համատեքստում (Ջերմուկ խոշորացված համայնքի օրինակով)/Impact of Community Amalgamation in the Context of Effective Implementation of Local Government Powers (Example of Jermuk Amalgamated Community)

Abstract

The processes of administrative-territorial reforms taking place in the Republic of Armenia in recent years, in particular, the process of community amalgamation, have created new opportunities for the viability boost of communities, resulting in a positive scale effect. A significant increase in public service expenditure has been observed in small communities that are part of an amalgamated community. Expenditures on education, housing construction, utilities, transportation, garbage collection, culture, and social security have increased significantly. At the same time, the expenditure ratios in large communities have remained almost unchanged. There are several reasons for this problem, including the implementation of the powers defined by law, their significant inconsistency with the community budget, inexplicit legislative definitions of the powers, and the absence of an evaluation system for their implementation. In such circumstances, there is a need to evaluate the impact of community amalgamation on the implementation power defined by law. Even with the fact that more than half of the community budget revenue is from the state budget, the communities in the pre-amalgamation and post-amalgamation periods continued to implement a limited number of powers and act as the minimum community service provider. The Law on local self-government defines the scope of mandatory issues that apply equally to all communities, which, of course, requires the definition of these powers by specifying the concepts in the law, introducing an evaluation system for the implementation of these powers without ignoring the sectoral characteristics and the potential of the communities