Decentralizacijos principų atspindys nustatant vietos savivaldos funkcijas
The reflection of decentralisation principles assigning local government functions

Summary/Abstract: Daily political discussions about decentralisation in public sector characterise this concepts as frequently audible but little determined. The majority of odds between central and local governments arise namely due to different approach to this term. The subject of this paper – functional decentralisation. The clear division of functions between levels of government has crucial importance, whereas allocating fiscal resources and budget transfers among government tiers must come only after a clear assignment of functions and spending powers. If the responsibilities of the various levels of government are poorly defined, then obviously the resources will also be inadequately defined in regard to the amounts needed to finance spending and in regard to their nature. Therefore the aim of this paper – to evaluate how functional decentralisation of Lithuanian municipalities is reflected in the main national laws from the standpoint of the decentralisation notions. The tasks for achieving the aim are as follows: (1) after a short description of state functions in market economy define the notions of decentralisation, their presumptions and their role in the decentralisation process; (2) to find out how municipal functions in Lithuania, described in the main laws correspond to the nature of decentralisation notions; (3) to evaluate the clarity of decentralisation criteria in functions assignment; (4) to summarize the division of powers between levels of government. Lithuania, as many post-Soviet countries declaring the idea of decentralisation, is still in the process of it. Heritage of the Soviet system and repeated change of political parties hinder the effective implementation of this process. Therefore the understanding of decentralisation process and its political and economic issues is extremely important. Even if there is no perfect model of functions assignment between tiers of government which would be suitable for every system, the main criteria of intergovernmental assignment of functions based on both theoretical studies and empirical research should be taken into consideration, as unclear or incorrect division of responsibilities leads to the problems of inter-jurisdictional miscommunication, inequitable allocation of resources, imprecise accountability and inefficient performance of public functions and also faulty system of intergovernmental transfers. When analysing the functions assignment to Lithuanian municipalities it developed that devolved and delegated functions are presented without any logic system and do not match any classification, notwithstanding the fact, that municipal expenditures must be classified in accordance to COFOG classification, which creates the problem of accountability. Another important outcome of this study is that assessment of two decentralisation notions – delegation and devolution of functions for local level are not so in reality. It means, that delegated or devolved functions set in the law on Local selfgovernment, in fact does not fulfil the nature of these notions, which was clearly shoved on the example of pre-school and preprimary education.

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