Political devolution of state power, how is political devolution different from technical decentralisation?
Nepal has begun its political devolution since 1950 in the name of block development after the Rana regimes. The country has been gone in to the various stages of local development in Panchyatand multi-party democratic system in to republic. Nepal new constitution in September 2015, which sets out a federal, multi-party democratic system of governance and a commitment to end all forms of discrimination, recognising unity in diversity. It commits to achieve this by devolving power to local and provincial levels.
For the implementation of the vision of the constitution, a legal framework has to be drawn up clarifying the space within which the new structures can operate. A few of these laws and regulations have been drafted and passed the “Local Government Operation Act-2074”. The changing structure and systems provide an important opportunity to support the implementation of development activities, opening of policy debate about options and trade-offs to operationalise the vision of the constitution. Given the sensitivity of this transition, newly elected provincial and local governments required critical technical support for the operationalize their functional roles and responsibilities in the sector of; executive, legislative and judicial.
The major principles are of the local government are; legitimizations, periodic election, geographical boundaries and their demarcation, clarity of roles and responsibilities, inter-governmental linkages and coordination.
Federalism is a political system through which two or more governments have shared authority over the same geographical area. Nepalese federal/local government have major characteristics; system of government that divides sovereign power across at least two political units. Sovereign Power – the amount of authority and autonomy given to each unit of government. Federal government not responsible for issues such as preparing drinking water taps at local level. State/local governments not responsible for national defense, monitory and foreign policy.
Rural/urban municipalities have the political agendas as per the constitution of Nepal. Local Government Operation Act 2017 and bylaws which is most important part of the legitimization. The issues are how to ensure the development activities which require high participation of the communities for the implementation of the programme activities. Before going to implementation of the programmes, it is important to have ‘strategic vision’ to decide deliberative decision-making and annual planning process. In this process it is important to have political agreement among the elected representatives and opposition parties at the Palikas’ level. The party manifestos are important factor to drive their community participation though the user’s committees and Community Organizations at the ward level. The ward committees are main instruments for the community participation.
In my opinion, there are major actors in the development planning process which required clearly defined roles and responsibilities for each local government Mayors/Deputy Mayors, Ward Committee Chairs, members and female members more inclusive participation in the decision making.
There is critical area to collect the revenues and tax, which required adequate and appropriate local sources of revenue over which sub-national governments are given control to establish link between benefit and cost of the local services. In my opinion there is urgency address adequate development settlement and ward level proposals throught unified budget. LLGs can constituents in place appropriate demands on local government and hold local official more accountable for their performance based better service delivery. The elected local government officials need to be more accountable to their citizens for coordination, cohesiveness and coherence among the various development and judicial stakeholders. For the effective implementation, there are key stakeholders are the “Civil Servants” which is urgently required. MOFGA is the key stakeholder for the issuing of model laws, rules, regulations and procedures.
Sufficient technical and managerial capacity allow to local government to meet the legitimate demands them constitute and any mandates essentials to achieve objectives as per local government operation act. It required appropriate design system inter-governmental relationship including technical and fiscal support mechanism to bridge the capacity gaps. It is important both upwards and downwards accountability. Private sector and individual experts can be value addition for better function of LLGs. The general assembly, executive committees, local revenue advisory committee, revenue estimate and budget ceiling determination committee, budget and programme formulation, judicial committees chaired by deputy mayors and other thematic committees are the major actors.
General impression of the functioning of local governments so far in the current ongoing federalisation process in Nepal.
My impression is about the functional of local government is quite optimistic in the Nepal where 753 Local Level Governments are in-place as per the democratic electoral process. Existing clear laws and bi-laws are such as “Local Government Operation Act, Intergovernmental Fiscal Act, National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission Act -2017, procedures, laws, local governance resource books developed by ministry of federal affairs and general administration. Beside these regulations, many local government themselves prepared other customary laws which will enhance exclusive power in 22 matters, concurrent power in matters which will be around 320 functions which are both functional and unbundling for the local development. This is the historic moment for the Nepal serve the citizens more closely by their own elected representatives with the help of technocrats.
More inclusive decision-making process for the marginalized, economically deprived and socially excluded communities in their basic need such as education, health, income, social safety-net and living standard. Local government is needs to focus on capacity development, first they need to develop clear do able polices, guidelines and operational manuals and longer- term periodic plan. Technology innovation is critical in ‘Information Communication & Technologies’ system, data base.
There is not yet clear who will handle common agendas /issues such as poverty, land management. There is critical gap between the provincial government and local governments for their roles and responsibilities, taxation, revenue collection issues. It needs to develop clear policies. The issues of monitoring and oversight issue is crucial for the quality assurance of the development activities at the LLG level.
Where local governance governments in upcoming five years from now?
I am quite optimistic for upcoming five years there will be bright future of LLGs because after almost two decades later elected representatives are in place. Permanent two third majority government is in the federal level and out of seven, six provincial government are governing by Nepal Communist Party which is one of the important factors for the permanent government structures at all three tires of the government.
It needs to change ‘business as usual not an option anymore’ deliberative decision-making process is essential for the success of the programme. For the success of the programme for upcoming five years there is required to implement the role of local political accountability by technical and social accountability required by the LLG and provincial governments. It needs to be clear targeting to reach to the poor and deprived communities which not restricting autonomy, discretion and choices with over focused programmes. The conditional grants are essential from the government. There might be important to develop policies for the ‘matching fund’ and ‘cost sharing investment modality’ for the longer-term development. As per current scenario there is bit less optimism in the provincial government due to not having sufficient deputatization to the civil servants at the provincial level.
[1]. Mr. K. C. is Ph. D. Scholar for Rural Development Department of Tribhuvan University Nepal. nahakulkc@gmail.com
