Overview of Local Government

Overview of Local Government

2.11 Turkey’s local government system has adapted to many changes since its beginnings in the mid 1800’s. The municipality of Istanbul was created in 1854 and ten years later then Ottoman State had provinces, districts and villages. Following the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, a local administration system was set up based on the principles of the French centralist system. The Municipalities Law, passed in 1930, delineated the duties and responsibilities of the local authorities and remains the basic legislation for today’s municipalities. An Act on Municipal Revenues followed in 1948. During these early years, local authorities were seen as an extension of the central government, charged with the task of carrying the philosophy of the new state into the provinces of the country.

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  Municipalities. There are about 3,200 municipalities that have been established in areas which have more than 2,000 inhabitants. They cover about 75% of the country’s land mass and the average municipality has a population of 15,000. Each municipality is headed by a directly elected mayor and governed by an elected municipal council.
  
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  Metropolitan Municipalities. In 16 of the main urban areas in Turkey, the municipalities are organized under umbrella organizations referred to as Metropolitan Municipalities, enabled by the Metropolitan Municipalities Act passed in 1984⁴. Municipalities in metropolitan areas are called district municipalities and retain many functions as agreed with the superior local body in charge of the whole metropolitan area. Metropolitan areas are formed by an act of Parliament and all have separate water and sewerage utilities.
  

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  Villages. Turkey has about 35,000 villages that are governed by elected head-men (Muhtar) and a council-of-elders in line with ancient Turkish traditions. The average village has a population of about 500.
  

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  Special Provincial Administrations (SPAs). There are 81 SPAs in the country - one in each province. The SPAs cover areas that fall neither within municipal nor village boundaries. The local authority functions within an SPA are carried out by the provincial administration under the province Governor.
  

The main central government agencies active in the local government sector include:

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  Ministry of Interior (MoI) is in charge of the legal and administrative system for the sector and exercises control over the local authorities. This includes the right to control and even reverse decisions made locally related to services, acts, and staffing. The ministry can even temporarily remove officials in the local authorities. The ministry also organizes regular training and information activities to keep elected officials and staff in the municipalities up to date on policies and practices in the sector.
  

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  Iller Bank (meaning “Provinces’ Bank” in Turkish) is the agency that channels the central government financial payments to the municipalities. The bank also is the key agency financing infrastructure investments in municipalities. It supplements local governments’ own investments by financing and executing infrastructure projects through contractors on municipalities’ behalf. Funding comes from (i) earmarked central government budget grant funds, and (ii) the bank’s own funds from repayments and capital subscriptions from municipalities and other banking activities.
  

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  Treasury has provided guarantees on external loans made by municipalities. The guarantee scheme has not worked well since most municipalities have defaulted on the loans and as a result Treasury is now implementing a loan guarantee scheme under the rules laid out in the Law of Borrowing (2002).
  

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  The State Planning Organization (SPO) monitors revenue and expenditure levels, and reviews the many investment proposals from local government agencies that ask for central government funding or guarantees. The agency is also responsible for the annual compilation of Turkey’s Public Investment Program.
  

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  Ministry of Finance keeps track of tax resources being transferred to the local authorities and reviews proposals at the local level to increase taxes. This agency also audits the municipalities.
  

15. 
    As mentioned above, core municipal services are related to transportation, water and wastewater, and solid waste management. The municipalities in most cases produce and deliver the services themselves. They have the option to use the private sector for the delivery of services, but this practice is not common. The municipalities also can work with Iller Bank to help plan, procure, finance, and implement an investment program. Iller Bank also provides technical assistance on land-use plans, and design and construction of water supply and wastewater management systems, on an as needed basis.
    

15. 
    In the metropolitan municipalities, water and wastewater management is the responsibility of semi-autonomous water and sewer authorities. Solid waste collection is the responsibility of the district municipalities while waste transfer and disposal are the responsibilities of metropolitan municipality. Construction and maintenance of the main roads is the responsibility of the metropolitan municipality, while that of secondary and tertiary roads is the responsibility of district municipalities.
    

15. 
    In many middle income or high-income countries, municipalities are responsible for the delivery of social services such as health and education apart from the above mentioned infrastructure services. International experience has shown that as countries develop and governance structures are strengthened, there is a gradual decline in financing by the central government of local expenses. Turkey in the future may consider increasing the level of municipal responsibilities. However, today the governance structure and the incentives are not adequate for the municipalities to take on this additional responsibility. This has led to a low level of confidence in municipalities as public institutions which are prone to corruption (Box 1). As the municipal sector goes through reform, and as local revenues increase, expanding the current level of municipal responsibilities may become more feasible in the longer run.