Legal aspects of local road funding were discussed with municipalities
On 7 June this year, the Lithuanian Road Administration (hereinafter referred to as the Road Administration) organised a remote seminar for municipalities on the topic “Amendments to the legal acts regulating the use of the funds of the Road Maintenance and Development Programme (hereinafter- the RMDP) for roads of local importance”.
The aim of the seminar was to provide the participants with as much clarity and transparency as possible on the legal framework and to eliminate potential misuse of funds.
“The benefits of such meetings are obvious, first of all it helps to achieve closer cooperation with local authorities. Moreover, it creates an opportunity for all parties to directly discuss the most efficient use of the funds allocated for financing the development of local roads, as well as the legal and technical aspects of this process,” emphasises Remigijus Lipkevičius, the Director of the Road Administration.
The seminar, initiated by the Road Administration, featured presentations by specialists from the Road Administration, the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Special Investigation Service. During the seminar, which took place on the “MS Teams” platform, the representatives of municipalities were presented with the changes in the Road Maintenance and Development Programme (hereinafter – the RMDP), the risks of corruption in the distribution of the RMDP funding in the municipalities, the adequacy of the legal registration data of the local roads, design process and practical examples for exit roads to national roads, the conditions for the installation of the street lighting and the installation of the directional pedestrian crossings at the national roads, the prospects of the installation of the pedestrian and bicycle paths and other.
A number of questions were asked by the participants of the seminar to the representative of the Ministry of Transport and Communications regarding the possibility of financing nationally important local road objects. The presentation “The design process and practical examples of exit roads to national roads” also attracted a lot of interest from municipal representatives.
More than 120 representatives of municipalities and other institutions attended the seminar.
Representatives of the Lithuanian Association of Municipalities thanked the participants for the seminar, the information provided and the answers to their questions, and noted that the seminar was useful.