Strategic planning and its match with program budgeting in Lithuanian municipalities

LTStraipsnyje analizuojamas Lietuvos savivaldybėse vykstančio strateginio planavimo ir programinio biudžeto diegimo privalumai ir trūkumai, keliami klausimai dėl strateginio planavimo ir programinio biudžeto teorijos įgyvendinamumo praktikoje. Remiantis atliktu tyrimu, bandoma atsakyti į pačius aktualiausius klausimus, kylančius Lietuvos savivaldybėse: kokį vaidmenį vaidina strateginio planavimo metodika? Ar reikia sieti strateginį planą su programiniu biudžetu? koks politikų ir administracijos vaidmuo strateginio plano kūrimo ir ypač jo įgyvendinimo procese? Visa tai svarbu todėl, kad strateginis planavimas ir programinis biudžetas yra naujovės, kuriomis siekiama efektyviau organizuoti ir vykdyti savivaldybių darbą.

ENLithuanian public administration system has adopted, employed and discarded a number of administration systems in Lithuania over the last two decades. Implementation of these systems was led by the belief that the reforms will foster more efficient and effective governance. Recently strategic planning - if not strategic management - has become in a way both a necessity of a modern public institution and a fancy attribute, while the principle of program budgeting is propagated as one more idyllic provision that will generate greater economic effect and even enhance financial flows. However, the lack of knowledge of the principles that form the core of the New Public Administration and underscore the importance of strategic planning and results-oriented governance (Osborne et al., 1992) makes us at least not as modern as we would wish. Acknowledging the inevitability of installation of these systems, we have to notice that the success of these systems depends on the quality and the method of implementation. This is even more important as the local self-governance operates in a variety of specific ways and the strict unification in installing strategic planning and program budgeting at the level of local municipalities might threaten the very nature of self-governance. The influence of the State as the “sixth force” manifests in the implementation of the strategic planning systems in public institutions (Jucevičius, 1996). The same pattern we notice in case of Lithuanian selfgovernments where “links unforeseen by Constitution exist between systems of state management and local self-governments which violate the principle of subsidiarity” (Raišienė, 2003, p. 18).Strategic planning models that are implemented in Lithuania at the level of local self-governance have specific features: according to M. Arimaviciute (2003), stages and components of strategic planning system are based on models stemming from Harvard tradition, emphasizing environment, resources and SWOT analyses and models of system structure where stress is on mission formulation, strategic goals, program formulation and monitoring (2003, p. 13). In this paper we try to show the point of view of practitioners therefore the topicality of this article rests on the need for both practitioners and theoreticians to seek for models of optimal strategic planning implementation and functioning in Lithuanian self-governments. The article employs the data from the survey undertaken in the framework of project “Implementing Local Development Strategies in Lithuania: Improving Public Service Delivery through Strengthening the Capacity for Partnerships and Sound Financial Management” initiated by UNDP office in Lithuania, Ministry of the Interior and implemented by Municipal Training Centre at Kaunas University of Technology. The scope of the project and the survey included 17 municipalities 1 from districts of Marijampolė, Utena, Kaunas, Panevėžys, Telšiai, Vilnius, Alytus, Klaipėda and their administrative and political staff.The problem brought in this article is that the organization of strategic planning process in municipalities is very variant in separate municipalities and there is objective difficulty to identify acceptable strategic planning system at local level in Lithuania not to say that the program budgeting is terra incognita in current system of strategic planning. While analyzing this situation we put forward the objective to discuss certain aspects of composing and functioning of strategic plan, as well as its relation to program budget and goals to summarize to a certain degree the experience in composing strategic plans in local municipalities, highlight essential features of the methodology for municipal strategic planning and bring some light on the importance and interplay between program budget and strategic plan.