Participatory budget – potential errors/obstacles and examples of coping mechanisms
Moderators:
Piotr Drygała, the Dabrowa Gornicza City Council,
Borys Martela, the Topografie Association
Time: 1. Day (Thursday, May 28.), hrs.12:45-14:45
Location: III floor, zone A
Format: experience sharing
Can a participatory budget be flawless? Could it be that this yet new procedure employed by the most developed local governments in Poland at most only four times has been mistake-free?
The practice shows it has not. Like any other process participatory budgeting could be prone to failure. However, participatory budgeting differs much from other public administration processes because an actual participatory budget is implemented and realized with significant support of citizens and non-governmental organizations and therefore is subjected to a thorough civic supervision. Due to that any petty mistake could be magnified and might overshadow the good job done by those involved.
During the session we will not discuss the ways to avoid mistakes altogether, but rather how to familiarise and cope with them. Put simply, how to acknowledge errors and save face, without damaging the whole process.