Regional Development Programme 2022-2030

• More than half of the municipalities miss out measures in the areas of culture, agriculture, economy and innovation and energy in the Regional Development Programme.
• Some of the indicator values in the Regional Development Plans do not reflect the need for change and do not encourage progress.
• More proactive leadership is needed to identify measures that are relevant to municipalities, with 33% of the allocated funding still unplanned 2 months before the deadline and two regions with 50% of their funding still unplanned.

Drafting of the Regional Development Programme for 2022-2030 has not been organised in an efficient and effective way, as it has only partially responded to the needs of the regions: the programme could have been broader, the existing instruments more attractive to regions and municipalities, and could have made a greater contribution to solving their problems. These are the results of the National Audit Office audit "Regional Development Programme 2022-2030".

"Residents, wherever they live, must have similar access to education, work, adequate medical, transport, public and other services. Economic and social disparities between the country's regions are being addressed, but disparities between regions are not declining. The audit shows that the Regional Development Programme will only partly contribute to addressing the problems of the regions," says Mindaugas Macijauskas, Auditor General.

The auditors found that the Regional Development Programme could have been broader, as all Regional Development Councils and more than half of the municipalities missed out measures in 4 areas (culture, agriculture, economy and innovation, and energy), and the existing measures could have been more appropriate. The lack of sufficient coverage of the Regional Development Programme and the lack of timely involvement of regions and municipalities in the planning of measures means that all the problems affecting the regions are not being addressed, and that regional development planning does not take place in a bottom-up manner, as was the aim of the Programme. Pre-conditions imposed by ministries, restrictions on the activities to be financed and a relatively narrow list of proposed regional measures give regions only a limited degree of autonomy.

We found that less than half of the municipalities plan to participate in 5 out of 14 progress measures (3 from the Ministry of Environment and 2 from the Ministry of Transport and Communications), while 34 municipalities, whose participation is important for addressing inter-regional and intra-regional disparities, do not plan to participate in 11 measures. The target values for impact indicators in the Regional Development Plans are not ambitious and do not show the progress and impact to be achieved, as in five regions half (on average 10 out of 21) of the actual 2022 values of impact indicators have already approached or exceeded the 2025 target values, without starting the implementation of the 2022-2030 regional progress measures.

"Some of the progress measures are unattractive and inappropriate for municipalities because they do not address the problems they are currently facing. For example, the Ministry of the Environment's measure to clean up historically contaminated and damaged sites is open to 60 municipalities, but only four are planning to participate, even though participation is essential for 16 municipalities to have an impact from the programme. Most municipalities have identified that they are not satisfied with the pre-conditions of the measure. For example, the requirement for population density", says the Auditor General.

The audit results reveal a lack of leadership and cooperation within the competence network to achieve the objectives of the programme. The competence network of participating bodies has been set up but does not include experts who could provide expert support to the Regional Development Councils and municipalities.

It also established that the preparation of the Regional Development Programme has taken around 1.5 years (half a year longer than planned), which shortens the overall implementation period. With two months to go, 33% of the funds allocated to regional progress measures have not been planned and two regions have not yet planned 50% of the funds.

To ensure that the Regional Development Programme measures respond to the needs of the regions, at least 80% of the programme measures should involve all regions by the end of 2027. For all progress measures, 100% of the Regional Development Councils should be consulted, and the number of contracts signed by 2025 should reach 78.