View Research by Author - Francis J. Conway

Publications

This paper describes in preliminary terms a methodology that the Ministry of Finance or other interested organizations in the Czech Republic can use to characterize the financial condition and debt position of Czech municipalities by using financial performance indicators. It also provides an example of applying that methodology in analyzing three groups of small municipalities in the District of Znojmo.

This report is based on an analysis of a survey conducted at the 1996 and 1997 Conferences on Financial Management and Development of Municipalities. The survey covers municipalities in the Czech Republic and was designed to determine why the municipalities were not applying certain methods for planning and investing. A second objective was to determine the attitudes of local officials regarding credit to finance local capital investment projects. This report presents the survey findings and concludes with a summary of the respondents' self-assessment concerning their ability to plan and finance investment projects.

This document reports on a conference organized by USAID and the Union of Towns and Communities in the Czech Republic to promote sound financial management of municipalities and the vital role that mayors and municipal finance officers play in ensuring sound management. It includes background information on recent developments in the Czech Republic's financial structure, outlines responsibilities of each sponsoring organization in running the conference, and describes the theme and speakers for each of the two general sessions and seven individual sessions.

This report examines the creditworthiness and capacity to borrow of municipalities in Romania. It summarizes principal findings and recommendations of the study, examines the intergovernmental financing system and aggregate, local-government finances in Romania. Also addressed are the legal framework and principal legal issues affecting local government's financial condition and creditworthiness. The report also summarizes the local-level analyses that were carried out for four larger municipalities and their corresponding regii autonomes and judets.

The U.S. Agency for International Development and EBRD have been cooperating with the government of Romania to develop a workplan to help create a Municipal Credit Facility (MCF) that would lend to general-purpose local governments (judets and municipalities) and local service enterprises (regii) to finance investments in infrastructure. This initial phase involves an analysis of the current financial condition of eight general-purpose local governments in urban regions to assess the credit worthiness of municipalities and judets as potential borrowers from the MCF. Included are analyses of the operations of the regii.

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