Co-production of public services
on rural areas – the Polish way?
Dorota Bednarska-Olejniczak, Phd Jarosław Olejniczak, PhD
Department of Marketing Managemant Department of Finance
Wrocław University of Economics, Poland
Aim of presented research:
The purpose of this paper is to present the structure of
sołecki fund as a solution that promotes governance and
co-production of public services, as well as to analyse
the use of this tool by urban-rural communes in Poland
in the years 2014-2017.
According to OECD's definition, co-production is
“a way of planning, designing, delivering and
evaluating public services which draws on
direct input from citizens, service users and
civil society organisations”.
It can be noticed that co-production may be understood as
”simple input into service delivery (e.g. feedback on
services)” or “extensive and enduring relationships with
service users”
The administrative division of Poland separates commune
(GMINA) as the basic unit of territorial division and its
authorities implement the majority of public tasks of a local
nature.
The legislator envisaged the possibility of creating auxiliary units
in the form of sołectwo, in the rural areas of communes.
Sołectwo is a non-obligatory auxiliary unit of the urban-rural or
rural commune that is created in order to implement this part of
own tasks of the commune, which due to the limited territorial
scope are specific for the given sołectwo.
The sołecki fund means a pool of funds guaranteed in the
commune budget for the sołectwo, for the implementation of
undertakings that are aimed at improvement of the living
conditions of its residents.
Three conditions must be fulfilled cumulatively:
(1) the submitted task must be own task of the commune,
(2) it must be conducive to the improvement of the living
conditions of the residents,
(3) it must be compliant with the commune's development
strategy.
This is a form of the co-production of public services,
because the residents themselves, in addition to
participation in the consultation process
(participation, co-governance), can participate in the
co-production of public services thanks to the direct
engagement in their creation (own work, co-
creation).
The research included all communes with urban-rural status in 2017 -
621 units (commune that covered the area of ​​at least one city and
surrounding villages). The time range covered the years 2014-2017
and the communes for which data was available in the Local Data
Bank of the Central Statistical Office (CSO)
The basic research method consisted of statistical analysis of the data
made available in the Local Data Bank (CSO) concerning the scale
and directions of expenses of the examined communes within
sołecki funds.
Results of study
Percentage of communes that implemented expenses within the
framework of SF in the years 2014-2017 and percentage of
communes that implemented expenses from the SF in the main
sections of budgetary classification
Year 2014 2015 2016 2017
Total 66.34% 72.30% 76.17% 79.39%
Transport and communication 88.11% 87.97% 88.79% 90.47%
Housing 18.69% 21.83% 27.70% 24.14%
Public safety and fire protection 54.37% 57.91% 60.89% 64.50%
Educational services 31.55% 32.29% 31.71% 32.25%
Municipal management and environmental
protection
80.58% 83.52% 85.84% 88.24%
Culture and protection of national heritage 85.19% 86.64% 87.32% 86.41%
Physical culture 69.66% 72.61% 71.67% 74.44%
Share of expenses by the sections of budget in the total amount
of expenses within the SF
Year 2014 2015 2016 2017
Transport and communication 30.70% 29.40% 28.60% 28.60%
Housing 2.50% 2.60% 2.90% 2.60%
Public safety and fire protection 4.40% 4.60% 4.20% 4.40%
Educational services 1.80% 2.00% 1.70% 1.90%
Municipal management and environmental
protection
15.30% 15.80% 17.00% 17.80%
Culture and protection of national heritage 29.80% 29.70% 29.70% 28.20%
Physical culture 8.10% 8.90% 9.70% 10.30%
Share of expenses within the sołecki funds in 2014 (left)
and 2017 (right) in the researched communes in the total
current expenses
Share of expenses in the section of transport and
communication within the sołecki funds in 2014 (left) and
2017 (right) in the researched communes
Share of expenses in the section of culture and protection of
national heritage within the sołecki funds in 2014 (left) and 2017
(right) in the researched communes
1. The scale of the use of sołecki funds in Poland significantly
increased and as much as 80% of communes started (or
continued) to use the sołecki funds.
2. Five main areas of spending, five can be distinguished, which
reflect the main needs of residents reported to communes in
the area of ​​improving the quality of life within the individual
communes.
3. Due to the scale of expenses, three of the above-mentioned
directions of spending dominate here (Transport, culture and
management)
4. It can be noticed that there is a strong diversification of
directions of the sołecki funds’ expenses between the regions.
1. It is not possible to indicated the reasons for such differences
between the regions without further in-depth research.
2. Another issue is the lack of possibility to assess the degree of
co-production of public services, due to the lack of a system
for monitoring and collecting data regarding this topic.
3. It can be assumed that studies concerning the co-production
processes within the sołecki funds may constitute a significant
contribution to the development of new public governance
theory, however this will require the research on the scope of
citizens' participation in decision making, provision of public
services, as well as reasons that they are guided by.
Thank You for attention.
Acknowledgement.
The project is financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher
Education in Poland under the programme "Regional Initiative of
Excellence" 2019 - 2022 project number 015/RID/2018/19 total
funding amount 10 721 040,00 PLN