Strategic Moves - Regional Environmental Center for Central and ...

investments. The capacity of the inspectorates is weak and a culture of compliance
is lacking; the link between the inspectorates and the line ministries is not
always strong and the connection between the inspectorates and the prosecution
is weak.
• The current capacity of environmental ministries may turn out to be insufficient
for the administration of all future environmental requirements. However, there
is pressure from ministries of finance to avoid an increase in staff numbers.
Obstacles to environmental infrastructure
financing — municipal level
Political
Local governments in SEE often suffer as a result of the deficiencies of the national
political system. In many cases the mayor represents a party that is not in
power, thus his or her leverage to attract funding and implement environmental
investment projects is limited. Conversely, those municipalities close to the governing
party may receive extra funding.
Local governments also struggle with a multitude of competing funding priorities
such as road and transport infrastructure, health, education etc. In many cases,
these investments are more visible and tangible than environmental investments
(with the exception of water supply, waste collection and the prevention of illegal
dumping), thus local politicians tend to give them priority. This is a particular
problem in the case of wastewater projects, where the population and elected leaders
are able to refer to traditional methods of household wastewater disposal, the
negative environmental impacts of which are not immediately visible (REC, 2005).
Economic/financial
Devolvement of responsibility without adequate resources
As a general rule, following the process of decentralisation there is a serious mismatch
between the obligations of the municipalities and their financial capacities
to manage these obligations. This is particularly true for waste and water management.
Municipal budgets are almost always insufficient to cover investments in environmental
infrastructure, and in most cases municipalities are prevented by legal,
political and capacity-related obstacles from raising sufficient resources to carry
out the investments needed in order to fulfil their obligations in these sectors. Very
often local governments’ hands are tied — they are legally prevented from taking
on significant debts (by debt service ratio laws), and from adjusting the amount
and type of charges imposed on users of infrastructure or penalties for non-payment
(by state controls on tariffs). They often face political constraints in the reorganisation
of utilities to better manage and collect fees to cover the operation
and maintenance of their infrastructure. However, with the implementation of the
EU acquis, much of this is changing for the better in the region.
C H A P T E R 3
C H A L L E N G E S T O E N V I R O N M E N TA L F I N A N C I N G I N S E E
S T R AT E G I C M O V E S 63