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.