Empowering grass roots: CM approves much-awaited changes to LG system

Says each department has its own business rules, these need to change with the times

PESHAWAR: The provincial government has approved changes to the legal framework and operational arrangements of the local government system. The aim is to increase the power of district and tehsil nazims.

This was announced by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak during a news conference at his official residence on Saturday. Senior ministers were also present on the occasion.

The changes will subsequently be approved by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. Khattak said every department has its own business rules, but these needed to change according to the times and circumstances.

He said the K-P government allocated 30% of its budgetary allocation to the local government. In 2015, not all funds were spent due to the lack of experience, but it was a different story this year as the money was diverted to ongoing schemes at the district level, Khattak claimed.

He added the government had the capacity to provide 100% of the funds earmarked for the local government. The chief minister said the total share for local government was Rs33 billion and would be released in four phases.

The share would be based on resources, he said, adding 100% of the money would be released if made available. Similarly, if they got 80% from the resources, then the same rate would be released.

He denied reports of lapsing funds every year. He said most funds were spent in the first year of the new local government system. Citing figures, the chief minister said 85% of the total allocation was utilised

He added the remaining budget was spent on non-development sectors such as increasing salaries. Khattak said had the amount not been spent on salaries, it would be put into the development sector. The chief minister hoped for a 100% utilisation rate this year.

The chief minister said a committee of senior ministers was formed to improve the legal framework and operational arrangements of the local government system. He said it included Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Inayatullah Khan, Minister for Irrigation Sikandar Sherpao and Minister for Health Shahram Tarakai. The committee held several meetings with nazims, district governments and tehsil municipal administrations and prepared recommendations for the provincial government’s consideration.

The participants proposed share percentages for priority areas. For example, education would get 20%, health 10% and 15% was set aside for women development and youth/sports. Meanwhile, the remaining 55 % would be the discretionary fund for the district government.

It was further decided that to fill the existing gaps in the system, two representative nazims of district governments will hold a meeting with the secretary for planning and development (P&D) and rural development section chief.

About the shortage of necessary staff, the nazim and district government will approach the administration department to immediately make up for the deficiency on a temporary basis.

Khattak said changes have been made based on the recommendations of the committee. Now allocations for Drinking Water and Sanitation Services on the tehsil level will be 25%, 20% for municipal services, 5% for uplift projects and 50% would be at the dissertation of the council.

There was also a proposal to temporarily ban the appointments of fix pay/daily wagers unless approved by the local government secretary.

A report will be submitted on any newly created posts since September, 2015 to the chief minister. Khattak added amendments were made to the guidelines on the chairmanship of the district development committee and tehsil development committee.

The CM said the nazim of a district has been declared as the chief executive of the district under Section-11(2) of the LGA, 2013. The DDC also appraises PC-I schemes recommended by the District Development Advisory Committee (DDAC), which is a provincial body and not devolved.

Under the new DDC arrangement, district government-funded schemes shall be overlooked by the nazim and funds will be approved once the PC-I is given a nod by the deputy commissioner.

Meanwhile, Khattak said a committee of nazims would monitor the performance of WSSP and WSSCs against already decided key performance indicators.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2016.