A Performance Ranking of LGUs in Macedonia

Abstract

Local government performance within public sector performance is coming back because local government is faced with the problem of increased responsibilities under tighter budgets. Therefore, the issues of managing taxpayers’ money more efficiently and effectively still remain a challenge for local government decision makers. In addition, increased social inclusion has created a need for increased accountability and transparency towards local government managers.
This paper aims to facilitate decision makers as well as local government officials to offer a ranking system of local government units (LGUs/municipalities) in Macedonia by analyzing and normalizing some of the main financial indicators that make up the final annual accounts of all LGUs in Macedonia. The output of this work is a local government index showing the best and worst performing municipalities in the country. The provision of one aspect of LG government performance allows all local government stakeholders to have an overview of the budget spent as well as identify some best practices by comparatively identifying the practices of the best performing LGUs. However, the data availability has narrowed the scope of this performance ranking.
We hope that this study will contribute modestly to the existing literature of the performance in the public sector and specifically in that of the local government sector. There is an increasing interest in studies related to public sector performance. However, this interest has been very little in Balkan Countries.