A Citizen’s Charter for good governance and business development at local level

By S. T. Hettige, Professor of Sociology, University of Colombo

It is widely accepted today that good governance is critical for ensuring economic development and public welfare. This is true at all levels of governance from central through provincial to local.

It is in recognition of this truism that many concerned citizens, civil society organisations and intellectuals have argued over the years that there is a need to make every effort to promote transparent, responsive, and accountable governance in the country.

In recent years, increasing emphasis has been placed on good governance at local level. This is due to the fact that the members of the general public come into direct contact with local government institutions for various needs on a regular basis and their ability to satisfy such needs depends on how responsive and transparent these local institutions are.

In fact, inefficient, non-responsive, and corrupt local government institutions can make life very difficult for citizens. This applies to both ordinary citizens as well as those who are engaged in various business activities in jurisdictions coming under the purview of local councils.

Various statutory committees and commissions appointed by the Sri Lankan government from time to time over the last several decades to enquire into local government affairs also recognised the need to revamp the local government sector.

In this regard, it is important to note that the Presidential Commission on Local Government Reforms appointed in 1998 made far reaching recommendations to bring about the desired changes.

Successive governments have taken certain measures to implement some of the recommendations made by the 1998 Presidential Commission. Several development assistance organisations also have come forward to support reforms in the local government sector.

The Local Governance Programs of the Asia Foundation stand out as important initiatives in this regard. Among other things, the initiative is also making an effort to bring local government closer to the business community through its Local Economic Governance (LEG) project.

The main purpose of this intervention is to create a business-friendly regulatory environment by regularising and streamlining the transactions between the local councils on the one hand and the business community on the other hand.

The key method adopted to achieve the above objective is to introduce separate regulatory mapping guidebooks for Municipal and Urban Councils and Pradeshiya Sabhas. These guidebooks set out clearly the procedures to be adopted by the local councils to deliver various services to those engaged in various business activities and other residents.

In other words, the whole procedure becomes transparent so that there is no room for undue delays, confusions, irregularities and corrupt practices.

Some of the most important services that elected local councils deliver are connected with the issuing of building permits, butchers licences, certificates of conformity, club licences, environment protection licences, permit for advertisements placed for the attention of the public, certificates of non-vesting, permits for subdivision and development of land, street line certificates and collecting assessment tax, entertainment tax, trade licence and trade tax, vehicle and animal tax, etc.

The above initiatives have been taken in the larger context of local government reforms intended to ensure that local government institutions respond to the needs of citizens in a timely and transparent manner.

The introduction of the idea of a Citizen’s Charter to public officials and elected bodies is an important step in this direction. The government of Sri Lanka decided in 2007 to adopt the concept of Citizen’s Charter for the local government sector. The Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government with the assistance of the Asia Foundation has published a Guide for Formulating Citizens Charters by Local Government Institutions.

The guidebook published in 2007 sets out the purpose of the Citizen’s Charter as follows: “The main purpose of the Citizen’s Charter is to fulfil the objectives of good governance by making public service delivery simple, accountable, responsive, and transparent.

The services must be responsive to the citizen’s needs and must be provided courteously, fairly and effectively, at a reasonable cost” It is obvious that there are no simple remedies to long standing structural and cultural problems associated with local governance.

So, any attempt to transform local government sector needs to adopt a holistic approach. In other words, what is needed is a range of interventions targeting diverse issues in the sector. The Asia Foundation programs appear to adopt such a multi-faceted approach.

The establishment of Good Governance Resource Centres (GGRC) at the district level to facilitate local government reforms at provincial and local level is an important step in this regard. Supporting the Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government to develop and adopt a citizen’s charter is also a significant measure.

The development and dissemination of training manuals and materials among local officials, elected members and citizen groups have also been notable interventions. In other word, the project that aims to establish a closer collaboration between the local councils and business community should not be viewed in isolation.

The success of this initiative no doubt depends on various other measures that are being taken in the sector.In most of the local council areas, there has not been much clarity as regards the rules and regulations pertaining to various transactions between local authority and the business community.

The rules, regulations and the procedures have not been clearly spelled out or widely publicised. As a result there has not been much transparency and openness and this has often led to inefficiency, delays, and even corrupt practices. Many people have used their personal and political links to get what they want.

This situation has not been conducive for good governance and business development within council areas and has led to haphazard decision-making creating legal and environmental problems.

Another major problem has been the interference of external authorities such as national political agents, supra-national bodies, influential individuals and various pressure groups in the decision -making process.

Often such interferences have been counter productive from a good governance perspective as they have often led to irregularities, abuse of power and discrimination. It is clear that wherever the various components of the project had been implemented, the situation has changed significantly.

This is evident from the way the officials as well as the elected members perceive their responsibilities, their attitudes towards clients and citizens, and some of the official practices that have been adopted. In fact, the whole atmosphere has changed to a considerable extent in some of the councils that have adopted the new practices promoted by the programme.

Some have even changed the office layout in a client-friendly manner with easily accessible information displayed on notice boards and set up information help desks and hot lines to further enhance the Local Government services.. There has also been a marked improvement in a number of initiatives being undertaken as Private Public Partnerships in the localities.

A number of Local Authorities have already developed the Citizens Charters by using the guidebooks and the Regulatory Mapping templates, thereby committing to service standards and ensuring openness and transparency in their dealings. Others are making good progress in this all important initiative.

Further, public display of the guidelines and procedures with regard to the provision of various services has empowered those who visit local councils for such services. Various officers responsible for the delivery of services have come under pressure to attend to their official responsibilities in an efficient and equitable fashion. When this happens, there is little room for undue external interferences.

As officials attend to their duties in keeping with clearly laid down procedures, people do not have to go to powerful politicians and others to influence the decision making process. This helps both the officials as well as the citizens and curbs undue political influence and domination over the management of local affairs.

When the guidelines and procedures are widely disseminated, not much room is left for misinterpretations and malpractices, unless the councils come under pressure from powerful external figures and institutions.

In fact, councils have not always been able to resist such external pressure and some malpractices have taken place within their jurisdictions due to external interventions. This situation arises largely due to seemingly overlapping jurisdictions of various statutory and political authorities.

In such situations, local councils often become helpless, though the citizens do not always appreciate such difficulties faced by elected local councils. For instance, such supra-national bodies as Road Development authority, Ceylon Electricity Board and Urban Development authority implement their projects in local authority areas at times with little consultation with local councils. Such projects at times go against council plans.

Ideally, the elected local councils should be able to manage local affairs with minimal external influence and interference. Yet, the degree of autonomy of local councils vis-à-vis other authorities has been curtailed over the years due to various factors.

On the other hand, elected local bodies have considerable space for improving their performance and public image. Responding to the needs of local residents and the business community by providing the various services in an efficient, equitable and timely fashion is the way for such an improvement.

Creating a supportive business environment within their jurisdictions can go a long way in the above regard. A thriving business community can not only create economic opportunities for local residents but help a local council to generate much needed revenue for which many poorly governed local councils usually turn to the central government.

As some local councils in different parts of the country have already demonstrated, the way forward for all local councils is to adopt client-and citizen friendly governance practices.

If all local councils adopt such practices, the ground conditions will naturally become more conducive for economic activities and day-to-day living of the ordinary people. A pre-condition for such a transformation is the adoption and implementation of the Citizen’s Charter by all elected local councils.