GYLA continues to strengthen Local Self-Government bodies with the support of the USAID Local Governance Program. Lentekhi Municipality Sakrebulo is one of them, and it is a partner municipality of the USAID Local Governance Program and GYLA. The Sakrebulo approved changes to its Rules of Procedure last week, increasing the importance of the Sakrebulo's oversight role. GYLA is pleased that Lentekhi municipality's Sakrebulo will commence its activities with improved regulations. Apart from Lentekhi, Chokhatauri and Zugdidi municipalities have already started commission discussions of changes to the Rules of Procedure.

In the last period, GYLA actively studied the Sakrebulo's activities, and developed comprehensive recommendations aimed at strengthening and systematizing the oversight role of the representative body. Based on these recommendations, draft amendments to Rules of Procedures and commission statutes were developed for all target municipal Sakrebulos. Each of them was tailored to the needs of a specific municipality. With the proposed changes, shortcomings were corrected, ensuring compliance with legislative techniques and superior legal acts. The project introduced a new mechanism to the Sakrebulo, the thematic inquiry. By refining these and other existing mechanisms, the role and oversight function of the Sakrebulo commissions have increased. The existing mechanisms, which were partially mentioned in the regulations, were documented in procedural detail, making them more understandable and systematic. To prevent the fragmentation of statistics and information on the use of these mechanisms, the role of the commissions and the Sakrebulo staff in data collection and processing has been strengthened.

Within the framework of the project, GYLA continues to collaborate with Lentekhi, Zugdidi, Chokhatauri, Ozurgeti, Mestia and Batumi municipalities to enhance both the legislative framework and practical implementation.