NasNY
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
ISLAMABAD: Just ahead of introducing the new local government systems in the provinces, the World Bank (WB) has recommended to the federating units to adopt the new decentralised model similar to the 1979 local government ordinance, which was introduced by military dictator Zia ul Haq.
A policy note of the WB written by Banks fiscal expert Hamid Mukhtar titled promoting efficient service delivery with decentralisation states in its explanatory note that the provinces share a strong consensus to adopt 1979 (or similar) LGO, suggesting that they are quite amenable to developing municipal and local services to the local government.
However, some key services devolved to district governments by 2001 LGO, such as education, health and agriculture, would revert to the provinces.Towards a pragmatic model of decentralised service delivery, the policy note, which reflects views of the author and not of the Bank, suggested establishing a reasonably well-functioning decentralised system of governance and service delivery and it would be critical to adopt a more pragmatic approach to bottom up accountability.
This would require a system capable of integrating political, administrative and financial aspects of decentralisation. The first step is to better align political priorities of provincial and local tiers of governments by unbundling functions assigned to district governments by the 2001 LGO (introduced by Musharraf) depending on their nature.
District governments should be assigned local functions. In other words, provincial governments should adopt LGOs similar to the 1979 LGO, the policy note added.It recommends improving management and policy of key social services like education and health by devolving them to autonomous provincial authorities. For this, provincial governments would create these authorities preferably through actions of provincial assemblies, these authorities would be created at the markaz (sub-tehsil) level and the geographic boundaries of the markaz would be defined to coincide with the provincial assembly constituencies.
The member of provincial assembly (MPA) elected from each constituency or markaz should be the chairperson of all these authorities, stated the policy note.These authorities, according to policy note, would be governed by autonomous boards comprising local members of district councils, local professionals in these fields, and senior officers of education and health.
The boards would have complete autonomy over hiring, firing, transfers and postings and over funds received as grants from the provincial governments or raised by the boards by levying a fee, cess, or surcharge on delivery of the services.
The function delivery budget as well as the staff associated with functions should be transferred to these authorities, giving them full control over their management.Among the provincial governments, setting up mechanism for effective but non-intrusive monitoring of these authorities, based on pre-agreed benchmarks and targets. The results of such monitoring to be made public so that people can see performance of each authority, the policy note recommends.
Dwelling upon advantages and risk of the new model of local government system, the policy note stated that the biggest advantage is that it aligns the incentives among key stakeholders for more transparent and accountable service delivery system as well as establishing better coordination provincial government policies and devolved service delivery system.
With new system, the proposed model has several risks such as it gives MPAs almost full control over delivering key public services, making them vulnerable to capture by political and local elites, the policy note of WB illustrates.
Provincial departments and service delivery cadres are likely to show fierce resistance which would require careful management. As the service authorities are to get financial autonomy, the provincial financial management mechanism (procurement, accounting) are likely to be bypassed. Any additional cadre in service delivery may raise administrative cost.
Most of these risks should be mitigated by the bottom up accountability realised through the electoral system and non-intrusive oversight by the provincial governments would enhance the systematic accountability of these authorities, helping them achieve the objectives of this decentralised model.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-195662-World-Bank-wants-Ziaul-Haqs-LB-system-back
A policy note of the WB written by Banks fiscal expert Hamid Mukhtar titled promoting efficient service delivery with decentralisation states in its explanatory note that the provinces share a strong consensus to adopt 1979 (or similar) LGO, suggesting that they are quite amenable to developing municipal and local services to the local government.
However, some key services devolved to district governments by 2001 LGO, such as education, health and agriculture, would revert to the provinces.Towards a pragmatic model of decentralised service delivery, the policy note, which reflects views of the author and not of the Bank, suggested establishing a reasonably well-functioning decentralised system of governance and service delivery and it would be critical to adopt a more pragmatic approach to bottom up accountability.
This would require a system capable of integrating political, administrative and financial aspects of decentralisation. The first step is to better align political priorities of provincial and local tiers of governments by unbundling functions assigned to district governments by the 2001 LGO (introduced by Musharraf) depending on their nature.
District governments should be assigned local functions. In other words, provincial governments should adopt LGOs similar to the 1979 LGO, the policy note added.It recommends improving management and policy of key social services like education and health by devolving them to autonomous provincial authorities. For this, provincial governments would create these authorities preferably through actions of provincial assemblies, these authorities would be created at the markaz (sub-tehsil) level and the geographic boundaries of the markaz would be defined to coincide with the provincial assembly constituencies.
The member of provincial assembly (MPA) elected from each constituency or markaz should be the chairperson of all these authorities, stated the policy note.These authorities, according to policy note, would be governed by autonomous boards comprising local members of district councils, local professionals in these fields, and senior officers of education and health.
The boards would have complete autonomy over hiring, firing, transfers and postings and over funds received as grants from the provincial governments or raised by the boards by levying a fee, cess, or surcharge on delivery of the services.
The function delivery budget as well as the staff associated with functions should be transferred to these authorities, giving them full control over their management.Among the provincial governments, setting up mechanism for effective but non-intrusive monitoring of these authorities, based on pre-agreed benchmarks and targets. The results of such monitoring to be made public so that people can see performance of each authority, the policy note recommends.
Dwelling upon advantages and risk of the new model of local government system, the policy note stated that the biggest advantage is that it aligns the incentives among key stakeholders for more transparent and accountable service delivery system as well as establishing better coordination provincial government policies and devolved service delivery system.
With new system, the proposed model has several risks such as it gives MPAs almost full control over delivering key public services, making them vulnerable to capture by political and local elites, the policy note of WB illustrates.
Provincial departments and service delivery cadres are likely to show fierce resistance which would require careful management. As the service authorities are to get financial autonomy, the provincial financial management mechanism (procurement, accounting) are likely to be bypassed. Any additional cadre in service delivery may raise administrative cost.
Most of these risks should be mitigated by the bottom up accountability realised through the electoral system and non-intrusive oversight by the provincial governments would enhance the systematic accountability of these authorities, helping them achieve the objectives of this decentralised model.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-195662-World-Bank-wants-Ziaul-Haqs-LB-system-back
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