Formal mapping

Formal mapping

Users’ survey

Agency survey (at the level of the Department)

Formally (at the level of legislator) the rule of law principles are reflected in legal and normative acts. However, to a certain degree there exist is a problem in their implementation locally.

Despite the fact how the law is applied locally – through regular or written local procedures – the result must be clear and complying with the standards of national and international legislation.

An effective mechanism of protecting citizen’s rights at any stage of the decision-making process in defined in the legislation by filing suits in courts or by the administrative appeal.

More than a half of the Department’s employees (55,6%) in their work faced situations when the law did not clearly regulate the process of decision-making on some issue.

The majority of staffs of the Department (88, 9%) think that they have access to the newest laws, regulations and instructions in the area of housing. 66,6% of employees consider that training on using the new legislative tools are conducted for the benefit of the department.

62,1% of citizens highly estimated the level of knowledge of the Department’s employees on the laws and procedures regulating the work of the department.

Essential part of the interviewed citizens – users of the Department’s services (69%) think that the personal interest of the Department’s employee may influence the decision-making process. Citizens think that the officials treat certain status groups of citizens differently.

96,3% of the staffs agree with the statement that processing of the citizens’ requests is possible within the defined period of time.

59,8% of citizens think that the staffs of the Housing department are accessible for the personal meetings and communication.

57,7% of citizens think that the staffs of the Housing department will help them in case if obvious mistakes occur.

85,2% of staffs state that sometimes it is complicated to make decision within the defined period of time.

48,8% of the interviewed citizens consider that the department does not follow the timeframes, and 10,3% of the respondents could not answer this question.

39,6% of the interviewed citizens consider that the Department will reconsider its decision impartially and fairly.

75,1% of the interviewed citizens consider that the Department will inform them personally about the decisions being made.

69,6% of users think that they can get the information from the Department about their own case exclusively.

Only 49,6% of users think that the Department follows the established requirements on archiving.

Citizens are much more convinced compared to the agency staffs that the Department’s activities depends on the decisions and instructions of the controlling agencies.

71,1% of citizens think that the staffs of the department can take bribes without any consequent responsibility. On the contrary, the staffs of the Housing Department consider this situation impossible (73,1% persons).

2,832,83

Recommendations based on project results •Problems hindering the implementation of the rule of law principles

in the Housing Department were identified.

•The defined problems belong to two levels: problems at the level of the agency’s activities, as well as the problems at the level of citizens’ perception. Also two dimensions of the problems can be defined: those at legislative level or at the implementation level.

•Specific recommendations include: conducting the thorough research on contradictions in the legislation in order to develop local specifying instructions and standards for the municipality; strengthening the reporting on the decisions made by the Department; providing additional training to personnel on using the new legislation in the sphere; improving the current internal instructions on the record-keeping and communication with the citizens as the users of the Department’s services; and other.

•The proposed recommendations will work by the principle of “domino”: resolving the problem with implementation of a certain principle will positively affect implementation of other principles. Thus, the complexity in addressing the rule of law principles not only in the activities of the Department of Housing and Communal Services will be ensured, but it will also positively affect the activities of other departments of Lviv City Council, e.g. the Citizens Service Center.