Problems of Implementing National Projects at Municipal Level

The article analyzes the problems of implementing national projects at the municipal level. Based on the materials of the next wave of the annual expert survey of heads of municipalities conducted by the authors in March-April 2020 as part of monitoring the socio-economic situation in Russian municipalities. The author assesses the current situation, shows its distinctive features and trends in the context of the dynamics of the last decade, identifies the main problems that arise in municipalities in modern conditions during the implementation of national projects and possible ways to solve them. It is shown that serious barriers to the implementation of national projects at the municipal level, in addition to the wellknown problem of financial support, are the imperfection of the regulatory framework, insufficient methodological and information support, organizational difficulties, as well as personnel problems that significantly complicate the implementation of specific activities. The main obstacles to the implementation of national projects at the local level are weak coordination, inconsistency of actions of various bodies, centralization of managerial influences, as well as limited and insufficient certainty of the powers of local self-government bodies in the implementation of national projects. It is concluded that it is necessary to improve the mechanisms of interaction between regional and local authorities, aimed at significantly increasing the role assigned to local governments in the implementation of national projects. An important basis for decision-making in the development and evaluation of the effectiveness of national projects should be taking into account the opinions of heads of municipalities on the basis  of sociological monitoring of the socio-economic situation and evaluating the effectiveness of measures taken to resolve problems at the municipal level.