On the political side, mechanisms for the rapid disbursement of project grants to poor municipalities have an obvious potential for partisan pa- tronage and for political advantage, particularly during election processes. This has to be faced. To reduce the improper management of financial resources, it is critical to adopt transparent and objective selection crite- ria for projects. Additionally, to ensure long-term support for funds by international donors, it is important that technical staff are not treated as political appointees to be changed with each new government
