Durrës, Budget 2012 approved by City Council. Increased budget for Education up to 10% as demanded and advocated by CPII and CTO

After about six hours of debate, the Municipal Council approved the budget of 2012 for Durrës Municipality. This budget paves the way for key public investments in the coastal city. The right-wing advisors managed to impose significant changes in the draft produced by the left-wing municipal administration.  The most important change was the increase of incomes at the amount of 63 million ALL as a result of the reduction of some items in the draft-budget.

A sensitive topic of discussion was also the budget for education, initially foreseen at 6 % by the administration of Durrës municipality. The right-wing advisors increased the investments in the budget for education (school reconstruction) with about 51 million and 300 thousand AL. Lek. Practically, it upgrades the budgetary item for education from 6 % to 10 %. This literally satisfies the claim of the teachers of  Durrës, raised in the consultative meeting organized by CPII and CTO in Durrës on May 24. Such claim was supported and advocated by CPII since the very beginning.

Of this increase in the education budget, about 25 million AL Lek will go for the reconstruction of “Sami Frashëri” school while more that 26 million ALL will be used for the reconstruction of “Jan Kukuzeli” school. The latter offered its premises for the organization of public discussion on the education budget.

In general terms, the municipal budget of Durrës was increased from 1 billion and 729 million to 1 billion and 784 million. Such an increase mainly goes to investments in the areas required by the citizens during the program of public consultations organized by the Municipal Council of Durrës, in close cooperation with CPII and CTO of Durrës.

In particular, the increase of the education budget up to 10 % represents an undisputable history of success of the interaction between local decision makers and the civil society. The Chairman of the Municipal Council, Indrit Hamiti, expressed his satisfaction by the end of the marathon session for the budget approval. He congratulated and thanked “for this shared success” the ZTW members who were present in the meeting room of the council.

The consultation program of the Municipal Council with the community introduced by CPII represents a totally new approach on the public life in the second biggest city of the country. It sets a new standard for the City Council as well, in full respect of law and citizens. This process certainly culminated with the highly successful approval of the budget for 2012.

During these five last months, CPII and CTO of Durrës, in cooperation with the Municipal Council organized the public consultation for the Fiscal Package 2012, and the one for Environment and Education in the framework of the 2012 budget.

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