The Role of the Joint Central and Local Government Commission in Shaping the Principles of Financial Support for Local Government Units within the Government Local Investment Fund

Abstract

The Joint Central and Local Government Commission is defined by law as a forum for developing a common position of central and local government and has simultaneously been obliged to give opinions on draft normative acts, programmes and other government documents regarding local government issues. The article presents a case involving a lack of consultation of the Joint Commission on determining the principles of distributing funds from the second tranche of the Government Local Investment Fund, as well as the allocation and distribution of these funds to selected local government units without disclosing the principles or criteria for their receipt. Therefore, three key areas of the functioning and future of local government units have been distinguished: depreciating the role of the Joint Commission in the legislative process, the growing problem of political clientelism, an example of which is the distribution of public funds to certain local government units according to a so-called political key, and limiting the financial independence of local government units in connection with the trend of gradually losing financial independence in favour of targeted grants from the state budget.