Submission of projects
Initially, we define the principles of a given edition, including the timetable, the amount available to residents and its division into district and general city budgets. The first stage of the process is the submission of projects, which usually lasts about two months. Any resident of Warsaw can submit a project for the Participatory Budget – you do not have to be of legal age or registered in Warsaw.
A project can be submitted in two manners: online or on a paper form delivered to the City of Warsaw. Projects can be submitted on a district or city-wide level. In the application, you must enter your details (name, surname, home address and contact), as well as the title of the project, a description, the proposed location or an estimate of the cost of realising the project. The project can be submitted individually or with a maximum of two other people.
Each project must be accompanied by a list of residents supporting the project. For a district project you need 20 signatures from the residents of the district. If submitting a city-wide project, you need 40 signatures of support from the residents of Warsaw.
Formal and content-related project assessment
Thereafter, each submitted project is evaluated by the City of Warsaw. The Office’s personnel will first verify that the project has been submitted correctly from a formal point of view - that it was submitted on time, filled out correctly and contains all the necessary appendices.
If deficiencies or errors need to be corrected, City of Warsaw’s personnel contact the project author. They ask to complete the form and incorporate the necessary corrections. If the project author does not use this opportunity, the project is evaluated negatively and is not further considered.
The next stage is technical assessment of the submitted projects. During the substantive assessment, it is verified whether the submitted idea can be implemented in the proposed form. The project is reviewed in accordance with the criteria specified in the documents describing the course and principles of the Participatory Budget in Warsaw. We verify, among others, whether the activities described in the project correspond to the scope of the City’s tasks, comply with legal regulations and are generally available, the cost of the project has been correctly estimated and is within the specified limit, and whether the implementation of the submitted project is possible in the indicated location and during one financial year.
During the verification process it may be discovered that the project is not feasible in the proposed form. However, if it is possible to modify it, we contact the author of the project and present the scope of the proposed changes. If the alterations are not possible or the author does not accept them, the project is evaluated negatively.
Appeals against a negative evaluation result
Authors are entitled to appeal against a negative evaluation result. If the author appeals, his/her project is re-evaluated. Objections to the previous assessment are analysed. We examine whether everything proceeded correctly. The results of the re-evaluation are final.
Voting
Successful projects are submitted to a vote of the residents. Votes can be cast online or on paper ballots. Each resident may vote in one selected district on 15 district projects and on a maximum of 10 citywide projects. All Warsaw residents can participate in the vote, you do not have to be registered or of legal age. However, in order to verify that a given individual has not voted more than once, we require the PESEL number, which is unique for each citizen.
Selection of the winning projects and their implementation
Once the vote is over, the results are counted. The projects that receive the most votes and are compatible with the amount allocated for the Participatory Budget in a given district or at the city-wide level will be implemented. The successful projects are entered in the City budget for the following year and then their implementation begins. The performance of projects selected by residents in the voting is the responsibility of the City of Warsaw employees, who conduct all the necessary actions connected with the preparation of documentation, the selection of a contractor and the execution of the task. They usually contact project authors to inquire about and agree on various details, but this is not obligatory.
The 8th edition of the Participatory Budget in Warsaw has been completed. So far we have implemented more than 3500 ideas of residents and we are still carrying out new ones.
For more information about Warsaw’s Participatory Budget, please send an e-mail to bo@um.warszawa.pl.