Shot in the arm for local government bodies

By Ranil WIJAYAPALA

With the conduct of elections for 65 Local Government bodies including the Local Government bodies in the North on July 23, almost all the Local Government bodies across the country are poised to function again as one machinery to provide much needed infrastructure and common facilities for the people.

It is quite noteworthy that more than 90 percent of these Local Government bodies are to be run by the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance under the directives of President Mahinda Rajapaksa whilst a handful number of the Local Government bodies are to be run by other political parties like UNP, TNA and TULF. However, the system adopted in each and every Local Government body has to be unique to all Sri Lankans. Above all the problems faced by them are also unique.

Therefore, the Sunday Observer interviewed the Secretary to the Local Government and Provincial Councils to find out about the future programmes to take all these Local Government bodies under one track to take the country forward. Following are the full excerpts of the interview the Sunday Observer had with Dr. Nihal Jayatilleka.

Q: Can you explain in brief the Local Government bodies and their functionaries that can benefit the general public?

A: In Sri Lanka we have 335 established Local Government bodies. Out of that 335, 71 are Pradeshiya Sabas, 42 are Urban Councils, and 22 are Municipal Councils. This is the basic structure of the Local Government bodies in the country. These local bodies are providing services which are very closer to the country’s population. Therefore it is important to maintain the services of these local authorities in a methodical and qualitative way for the entire population.

The history of our local governing bodies also runs to 377 BC during the era of King Pandukabhaya where he has demarcated the boundaries of villages. Therefore the subject of local governance has a very long history in Sri Lanka. This system has been formulated to streamline the process of ruling the village units.

It was in 1865 that Urban Councils were set up in Colombo and Kandy. The Local Government Department has been established in 1931 on the recommendations of the Donougmore Commission Report during the British rule.

Development of rural roads, provision of public health facilities, conducting maternity and paediatric clinics, maintaining Ayurvedic and Western Medicine dispensaries, providing sanitary facilities, are some of the services rendered by these institutions. Solid Waste Management is one of the key subjects handled by the Local Government bodies for the convenience of the general public. Other than that, protection of environment, maintenance of public markets and weekly fairs, provision of library facilities, conducting of preschools, maintenance of the sports grounds and stadiums, and provision of housing facilities for the low income groups are also some of the responsibilities of these Local Government bodies.

Q: Elections were held for these local government bodies at different dates and many young and new Members were elected to these Councils. What is the Ministry program to get the maximum service from them?

A: Elections for 234 local bodies out of 335 Local Government bodies in the country was held on March 17. Elections for 65 Local bodies were held on July 23. Out of these two elections, 4834 (3959+ 875) Members have been elected for the Local Government bodies. Many of the Members elected to these Local Government bodies are young people. For some Local Government bodies elections were held after a very long period and members are elected to these Local Bodies after a long period. Considering all these factors we have initiated a programme to train all these Members after conducting a two days workshops countrywide in the last week of August. For this we are getting the assistance of Asian Development Bank.

Q:What kind of training will be given to those Members?

A: We are specially focusing our attention on the Members elected to the Local Bodies in the Northern province and provide them a training to conduct their duties and responsibilities in Tamil language and get their feedback. Otherwise we won’t be able to take them under one programme.

During this workshop we are going to educate them about the duties and responsibilities of the Members elected to these Local Government bodies, and laws with regard to the Local Government Authorities and by-laws and the way they can be implemented.

The workshop will also be aimed at educating them about the conducting of local government meetings, tender procedures, the preparation of budget.

In addition to that we will also educate them on how to generate revenue for the respective Local Government bodies making use of the resources available to them.

Another important aspect we expect to focus at these workshops is the ways of identifying the development projects, identifying priority projects, making project reports for identified development projects and how to implement, supervise, maintain those projects.

We also intend to educate them about the minimum quality needed to be there in the services they are rendering to the people.

They will also be educated on how to get the community participation in development activities and how they should work together with the Non Government Organisations and Private sector. They will be educated on the activities of the government institutions and identify them and how they can jointly work with them.

Q: After July 23 election, many of the Local Government bodies are getting activated after several decades. Has the Local Government Ministry paid more attention on them?

A: One thing we all can be happy is that we were able to conduct an election after decades enabling the people who were suppressed from brutal terrorism to elect their own representatives to continue development activities in their own areas. Therefore, the people who have been elected to those Local Government bodies have a clear responsibility to provide maximum possible service to the people living in their areas who have been deprived of democracy for decades. They also have the responsibility to work along with the Government in accomplishing the services to the public through the Local Government bodies and take maximum benefit from the initiatives of the Government to develop the country. Therefore we are paying much attention for those who have been elected to the Local Government Bodies in the North and East and also for the newly formed Local Government Bodies.

Q: There is serious problems with regard to the infrastructure facilities available for the local government institutions which were defunct for decades and those which have been formed newly. What is the plan of the Ministry to provide them with the required infrastructure facilities?

A: In the North and East a World Bank funded project is now being implemented to provide necessary infrastructure facilities for the Local Government Bodies in the North and East under the Economic Development Ministry. As a whole almost all the Local Government bodies except for a few have been included under this programme to provide necessary infrastructure facilities. From that programme office buildings, road development activities and buildings for clinics will be covered.

Q:Apart from the Local Government bodies in the North and East there are Local bodies which do not have required resources to develop their areas. How will the Local Government and Provincial Councils Ministry resolve their issues?

A: Local Government and Provincial Councils Ministry has identified more than 100 backward Local Government Institutions under an Asian Development Bank funded project. We have selected those local government institutions according to scientific indicators. Rs.6,000 million from the Asian Development Bank will be used to improve the infrastructure facilities of these Local Government Bodies.

Q:What sort of facilities does the Ministry aim to develop under these ADB assisted programmes?

A: Through that programme we will focus our attention mainly on the solid waste management. We are going to formulate a comprehensive system for the solid waste management in local authorities under this programme. To entitle this aid package these local government bodies should sign a MoU with the Local Government Ministry saying that they would start a proper solid waste management programme. We will also assist them to implement those programmes. Under this programme the local authorities which do not have buildings for their councils will also be provided with necessary buildings. But we are giving least priority for the provision of buildings. Building required clinics, libraries, to construct weekly fairs, drainage systems, sewage systems and for the implementation of drinking water projects, funds will be provided to them under this programme. This programme will be started at the end of this year.

Q: Apart from providing these physical resources the services rendered to the people through these bodies have to be streamlined. What kind of plans does the Ministry have to make the services rendered by them efficient?

A: It is useless to have physical development in the Local Government Bodies if there is no proper systems adopted in these Local Government Bodies to attend people’s problems effectively. There are Local Government bodies with all physical resources but not efficient enough to attend to the needs of the public effectively. There is no point of having physical resources if they are sending people back pointing out shortcomings.

That weakness we have identified. Therefore, we have decided to re-engineer the processes which are very close to the general public such as approving building plans. After analysing those systems very carefully we identified weaknesses in these systems.

Therefore we are going to change the application form for the building plan approval as they are full of unnecessary questions which cannot be answered by the general public. We are also focusing our attention to improve front office concepts at these Local Government bodies when people come there to get things done from the local Government bodies. At the front office they should check whether the people have submitted relevant documents and facts to get their work done before the relevant officer accept files at the front office.

To minimise inconvenience to the public they should take several measures and should give the public the exact date for them to come back. We need to have attitude changes and capacity building of the officers as a part of this programme. We are allocating funds from the ADB assistance programme for this purpose and we are also trying to get the funds from the next year budget to achieve those targets. Therefore we are going to make physical development and qualitative development in the local government institutions in the future.

Q:Elections should be held for another 23 Local government bodies. When will the elections be held for these Local government bodies?

A: Actually we have conducted elections for 299 Local Government bodies at the past two elections. The elections for another 23 Local Government bodies were postponed under Public Security Ordinance. The tenure of these Local Government bodies have been extended upto December 31, 2011. Therefore elections for these local government bodies should be held before December 31 this year. By January 31 next year new Local Government bodies should be in place. The Elections Commissioner is the sole authority to conduct elections according to the Elections Act. He will decide the date for the elections and most probably it will be before December as the Ordinary Level examinations have to be conducted in December.

Q: The Government came up with Metropolitan City Corporation amalgamating several Municipal Councils, Urban Councils and Pradeshiya Sabhas around Colombo. What is the present situation of that proposal?

A: In developed countries the administration of capital and major cities are conducted in a different manner as they can make a big impact on the economic development of the country. The Cabinet has given approval to have such system in Sri Lanka, also amalgamating Colombo Municipal Council, Dehiwala, Mount-Lavinia Municipal Council, Kotte Municipal Council, Kolonnawa Urban Council and Kotikawatta, Mulleriyawa Pradeshiya Sabha. That will constitute a huge area enabling to create this corporation. We obtained approval from the Cabinet to formulate the draft Bill for this. Within another two or three weeks we will be able to see the draft Bill. The Legal Draftsman’s Department is going to formulate this and we should obtain the approval from the Attorney General’s Department for that.

After taking the approval from the Attorney General it has to be forwarded again for Cabinet approval. After the Cabinet approval it should be gazetted to take the approval of the Provincial Councils. Then we have to submit it to Parliament. Only after that process is completed will such a corporation be established.

But I have to mention that through this Metropolitan City Corporation the voting rights of the people living in the Colombo city will not be deprived.

They will be able to cast their vote for the Colombo Municipal Council and elect their members to the Council. They can bring the party they like to power. The Local Government Institutions will remain as they are. The only change is the head of this Metropolitan City Corporation being the Governor appointed by the President. Though this appointment is made the Metropolitan Corporation Council will comprise the Mayors and Chairmen of the respective Municipal Councils and Pradeshiya Sabhas and the Opposition Leaders elected by the people. They have the voting rights at the council to represent the people.

There will be advisory committees to the Council.

Q: Will this be established before elections held for the balance 23 Local bodies?

A: That we cannot say at present. That will be done after the draft bill is prepared.

Q:What is the current position of the changes made to the Local Government Elections Bill to change the local government elections system?

A: A Bill has been presented to the Parliament to change the Local Government Elections system. Another Local Government Bodies Special Provisions Bill’ has also been presented to make necessary changes in the Local Government Bodies Act after the changing of the Local Government Elections procedure. The approval of the Provincial Councils have been taken for this and judgements have been delivered on the cases file against these Bills. This has been gone to the Parliament. Under this new system members will be elected from the first past the post system after conducting elections on Divisional level and members will be elected on the proportionate system also. It will give a voice for the defeated candidate who has obtained more than 5 percent of the total vote. That is a more democratic method. When conducting elections in this manner people can elect a member living close to where they live. Therefore the candidates will have to live with the people.

Q: What measures are being taken by the Government to create good governance in the Local Government bodies?

A: The Local Authorities Special Provisions Bill will also make amendment to the Local Authorities to create good governance among the Local Government bodies. Under the present system there are provisions for the Chairmen of the pradeshiya sabhas to ignore the defeat of the budget proposal at the Council and continue to act as a chairman. That will give power to the Chairman arbitrarily to handle matters of the Council ignoring the views of other Members. Under the new system if the budget proposal is defeated twice in the Council the Chairman has to step down and a new Chairman should be appointed. If the second Chairman also gets defeated twice the Commissioner can rule the council until elections are held to appoint new Members.

The other change included in this Bill is to remove the powers vested with the Chairmen of the UCs and PSs to sign cheques for council matters. That is not good for good governance and this has been changed under this Bill. We hope these new changes can be passed in Parliament after the elections for the balance 23 local bodies.

Q: There is a very serious situation at the Local Government Bodies due to large number of vacancies existing, in Local Government Bodies. What is the Ministry plan to fill these existing vacancies

A: Yes, I agree that there are vacancies in the Local Government and also in the Provincial Councils. But we have to be very careful when we are filling these vacancies as this can create a problematic situation to the government.

Now the Management Service Department of the Finance Ministry, Salaries and Cadres Commission, the Budget Department and the Local Government and Provincial Councils Ministry are conducting a special programme to identify the existing vacancies in the Local government, Provincial Councils and the positions that have to be created. The Chief Secretaries of the Provincial Councils are now continuing this programme. They are making the proposals to identify the essential cadres to these Local Government bodies and Provincial Councils.

We are expecting to complete this process very carefully. But we are going to recruit cadres required for the newly formed Local bodies and they will be fulfilled soon.