AGL 40.01 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.03%)
AIRLINK 127.11 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (0.06%)
BOP 6.60 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-1.05%)
CNERGY 4.48 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.67%)
DCL 8.61 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.7%)
DFML 41.71 Increased By ▲ 0.27 (0.65%)
DGKC 87.41 Increased By ▲ 0.56 (0.64%)
FCCL 32.35 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (0.22%)
FFBL 64.80 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
FFL 10.22 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.29%)
HUBC 109.36 Decreased By ▼ -0.21 (-0.19%)
HUMNL 14.70 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (0.14%)
KEL 5.05 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
KOSM 7.62 Increased By ▲ 0.16 (2.14%)
MLCF 41.49 Increased By ▲ 0.11 (0.27%)
NBP 59.62 Decreased By ▼ -0.79 (-1.31%)
OGDC 192.30 Increased By ▲ 2.20 (1.16%)
PAEL 28.10 Increased By ▲ 0.27 (0.97%)
PIBTL 7.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-1.02%)
PPL 150.51 Increased By ▲ 0.45 (0.3%)
PRL 26.20 Decreased By ▼ -0.68 (-2.53%)
PTC 16.11 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (0.25%)
SEARL 82.25 Decreased By ▼ -3.75 (-4.36%)
TELE 7.76 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.65%)
TOMCL 35.39 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.06%)
TPLP 8.10 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.25%)
TREET 16.05 Decreased By ▼ -0.36 (-2.19%)
TRG 53.11 Decreased By ▼ -0.18 (-0.34%)
UNITY 26.30 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (0.54%)
WTL 1.26 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
BR100 9,967 Increased By 83.6 (0.85%)
BR30 31,001 Increased By 400.7 (1.31%)
KSE100 94,136 Increased By 780.7 (0.84%)
KSE30 29,169 Increased By 238.2 (0.82%)

The local government system - a brainchild of military government - has been facing problems as some key provisions of Local Government Ordinance (LGO), including transfer of financial powers to the grassroots levels was not adhered to.
The Decentralisation Support Programme (DSP), an Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded initiative of Finance Division pointed out in its quarterly report that some of the LGO provisions were completely ignored thus the transition was not in totality.
While detailing these provisions, the report recounted inadequate financial resources disputed their development projects as the top tiers have yet to do away with control of funds for improving functioning at the bottom level. The transfer of financial powers is a prerequisite for decentralisation and timely and formula-based allocations in LG system is key to fiscal decentralisation.
The erratic schedule of transfers as well as ad hoc shares from higher tiers caused problems for local governments. They seldom receive anticipatory figures for receipts which makes it difficult for them to earmark realistic allocations for development projects.
To ensure the fiscal transfer, the Provincial Finance Commission was established in June 2002 with the statutory mandate to design formulae for distribution, grant system design, financial analysis and creation of data bases and recommendations to the provinces in strengthening financial viability.
Moreover, the functionality of some important committees such as monitoring, accounts, Musalihat, which were given top priority in the LGO to improve the performance of government offices along with service delivery through inputs from civil society and other stakeholders, were not properly functioning.
The report observed that the committees, which should have existed at the LG level, are not performing to the desired level and in some of the cases, they do not even exist. The committees are, as a second step, followed by local councils in developing a people centered democracy and to overcome such a dearth.
DSP's objectives are improved local government representation; accountability and efficiency, resulting in improved service delivery. Five years into the new system the role envisaged for the civil society through the establishment of Citizens Community Boards is yet to be realised.
Unfortunately, the mobilisation of the civil society for collective voluntary activities has never been a strongpoint of the government and is evident with the slow progress on CCBs. The political ownership of the local government system was badly hurt because of the their decision to hold them on non-party basis that also resulted in low voters turnout.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2007

Comments

Comments are closed.