Strengthening capability of self-governance bodies being discussed

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Speaker of parliament Z.Enkhbold delivered an opening speech at an discussion on a project on strengthening capability of self-governance bodies, which kicked off Thursday in the UN Permanent Representative Office in Ulaanbaatar. The three-year project is being co-implemented by the Parliamentary Office of Mongolia, the UNDP and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). At the discussion, Mr Enkhbold said the self-governance bodies of localities still lack a financial independence in implementing their legal power within the Constitution. However, a size of the localities' capital increased this year 2.3 times against 2010 thanks to adopting a new law on budget in January of 2013, he emphasized,"and it equals to 20% of the state budget". The Citizens Representative Khurals serve as a mirror in which the national parliament can see all localities, the Speaker said and underlined a main duty of parliament is monitoring the income and expenditure of the government. He noted that the project’s aim is to have parliament and government share their experience with the Citizens’ Representative Khurals when approving of budgets and controlling them. UN Resident Representative in Mongolia Ms Sezin Sinanoglu congratulated the local officials on participating in the discussion, and said the UNDP wants to collaborate with Mongolia in strengthening of Citizens’ Representative Khurals and improving the people’s trust in them. The open discussion has brought together 70 representatives of aimags and the city’s districts. They are exchanged views on activities to be done in frames of the project. The discussion will continue until Saturday.