Activities

In the area of good governance PROVIDUS focuses on relations of an individual with the state.  PROVIDUS believes that good governance cannot be measured only by the overall economic development of the state. Instead, participation of an individual in the political process, his/her capability to hold the state accountable and the capacity of the governance to guarantee fair solutions when a conflict between an individual and the state occurs is the main measure of success. In the area of good governance PROVIDUS works in several directions: 

  • Promotion of accountability of the political parties and financial transparency of electoral campaigns, 
  • Continuous evaluation and improvement of the administrative process quality,
  • Participation in monitoring of how the public financial resources are spent, i.e. EU Structural Fund allocation,
  • Analyses and analytical support to corruption prevention measures, including openness of information and responsibility of courts.

PROVIDUS continuously follows the public debate in the area of good governance by providing evaluation and proposals on the issues which are in PROVIDUS area of expertise.

 

Corruption prevention, openness of information and responsibility of courts

Corruption is a distortion of public activity, which is in conflict with all the values that PRPOVIDUS supports in the area of good governance – šī ir dīvaina definīcija. PROVIDUS continuously analyses the development of anti-corruption policy in Latvia. Especially for this purpose once in every six months publishes "Corruption ºC. Survey on Corruption and Anti-corruption Policy in Latvia”. PROVIDUS is also aware that decreasing of corruption depends not only on the activities targeting corruption itself but also on the degree of transparency and responsibility of public institutions. Therefore PROVIDUS analyses the mechanisms ensuring availability of information in the public structures, including law enforcement agencies, as well as aspires to strengthen responsibility of judges and the quality of work.

Researchers: Valts Kalnins, Linda Austere

 

Administrative procedure

After the Administrative Procedure Law came into force on February 1, 2004 one of the most important mechanisms regulating relations between the state and the individual began functioning on an entirely new level. Giving due regard to importance of this novelty, since the end of 2003 PROVIDUS has started various activities I order to assess quality of implementation of the new regulations, determine needs of institutions and facilitate a positive change of administrative practices. Activities include continuous analysis of decisions made by municipalities and latterly a court practice. Special significance has been attributed to implementation of the Administrative Procedure Law in Municipalities. Based on our expertise – PROVIDUS has provided necessary consultations and training to the municipality staff as well as inhabitants focusing on opportunities ensured by the Administrative Procedure law. PROVIDUS gradually expands the analysis of the decisions made by the Administrative courts.

Researchers: Agnese Lesinska, Linda Austere

 

Construction/building law

Construction is a branch of industry, in which suspicion of corruption and cumbersome bureaucracy can be still felt today. The legal regulations of the process are outdated and do not conform to the principles of modern administrative and environmental law. To facilitate the improvement of the existing legislative framework and implementation of good governance principles, in 2005 PROVIDUS embarked on analysis of decisions on construction/building permission issues made by the Municipalities and Administrative courts. PROVIDUS plans to expand its activities by offering both training with special focus on administrative procedure in construction sector as well as consultations for individuals.

Researcher: Agnese Lesinska

 

EU Structural funds

After the accession of Latvia to the EU sizeable financial resources started coming into Latvia from the EU structural funds. PROVIDUS has brought attention to a number of issues that are connected with the use of structural funds, for instance, the project selection criteria, publicizing of information about the recipients of funding from the structural funds, applicants rights to appeal and rise complaints. PROVIDUS holds regular monitoring of how principles of good governance are applied and recommends improvements in policy implementation process. PROVIDUS has also organised discussions about the next EU funds programming period (2007-2013) and organised campaign aiming to increase amount of allocated funds for human resource priority. PROVIDUS is the leading partner in an international project along with policy research institutes and researchers from Hungary, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Poland with an aim to analyse results of distribution of the EU structural funds in the five new EU member states.

Researchers: Lolita Сigane, Karina Janova

 

Party financing

PROVIDUS’ experts already since 2001 have been closely involved with the issues of party and electoral campaign financing. These issues became particularly topical in the end of 1990s when the World Bank linked the so-called state capture with large amounts of money of unclear origins in the accounts of Latvian political parties. To this date PROVIDUS experts have done three election campaign monitoring rounds  (Municila Election 2001 , Parliamentary (Saeima) Election 2002, Municipal Election  2005) and are currently running the fourth one 2006 Parliamentary (Saeima). Constantly evolving and adjusting the project methodology,  monitoring efforts consist of two main components – monitoring of paid political advertising and so called hidden advertising. During Municipal Election in 2005, Providus  monitored political party events and rallies, mobilizing a network or regional obersvers and developing a unique methodology for this purpose.  PROVIDUS experts have lead the discussion about various aspects of this complex issue and have actively advocated for amendments in laws that provide for openness and accountability of political party financing.

Researchers: Lolita Сigane, Iveta Kazoka