MP CITES SERVICE DELIVERY SETBACKS
A PARLIAMENTARIAN has bemoaned failure by local authorities in the country to provide essential public services.
Bwana Mkubwa Constituency Member of Parliament in Ndola Jonas Chanda said councils were unable to effectively provide vital public services such as garbage collection, efficient management of markets and bus stations.
Dr Chanda attributed failure by councils to effectively provide services to over centralisation of government at central ministry level, which left councils underfunded, not effectively monitored and poorly managed.
The parliamentarian said that it was no longer possible to manage public service delivery for a population of 15 million people, projected to reach 50 million by 2030, from a single central source in Lusaka and that doing so was a recipe for failure.
There was need for the Ministry of Local Government and councils in the country to be highly funded because they were closer to the people in providing essential services.
The law maker said overcentralisation or lack of decentralisation had resulted in the under-funding and late funding of councils resulting in their lack of key public health and engineering equipment.
Dr Chanda also said consequences of poor monitoring in local government was evident in the lack of accountability and alleged corruption in revenue collection from markets, bus stations and land sales.
Dr Chanda said President Edgar Lungu should be supported as he had already set the tone directing government ministries to decentralise and devolve most of their implementation functions to the Ministry of Local Government at district or council level.
Dr Chanda reiterated that any country that implemented an effective decentralisation programme had achieved equitable political economical and social development throughout the country and achieved great success in the fight against poverty by increasing people's participation in the planning and management of the development process.
The parliamentarian has also commended Minister of Local Government Vincent Mwale for initiating the pilot phase of the decentralisation programme in Lusaka where constituencies will become municipalities with their own civic centres.
Dr Chanda said decentralisation of government ministries' functions to the Ministry of Local Government at district level must be followed by fiscal decentralisation, with finances following functions of the majority of the national budget at district level with the councils since that is where programme implementation occurs. He cited the example of Rwanda as a country which has successfully managed to implement a proper decentralisation policy with over 80 percent of the national budget being allocated at district level since the district is the most important unit in programme implementation.
Dr Chanda has called on government to adopt some key lessons from the Rwanda government which ensures that all central and local Government leaders (ministers, permanent secretaries, district mayors, town clerks and heads of different government bodies) sign new performance contracts with the President at the start of every fiscal year.