Local Bodies: Interim Management
By Krishna Man Pradhan
There is no alternative to the local bodies (VDCs/municipalities/DDCs) in delivering necessary services to the people and carry out development works by identifying the local needs. With the aim of serving million population in the country, there are 3913 VDCs (Village Development Committees), 58 municipalities and 75 DDCs (District Development Committees). The elected representatives were actively working in the local bodies after the local elections of 1997 but since fresh election could not be held in 2002 due to political conflict, the local bodies are being run in various ways.
The Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007 has provisions for the institutional development of democracy by ensuring maximum participation of people in the state system and ensuring the exercise of popular sovereignty from the local level.
Currently, the local bodies are being run by government employees with the political understanding.
However, due to the political dispute, the constitutional provision on local bodies have not been implemented while the employees at the local bodies are engaged in agitation as they became unable to work in their respective villages. Consequently, the people are deprived of essential services. This means that the budget passed by the parliament, too, won’t get implemented. The first quarterly budget is definite to be less utilized as first two months (Shrawan and Bhadra) are going to be spent on agitation.
On the other hand, the local bodies are going to have to play a major role in the forthcoming Constituent Assembly elections scheduled for November 22. Around 22,000 booths will be need for the election to be participated by 15 million voters. Each VDC will have at least two polling booths. The employees of VDCs and municipalities will have to be mobilized for the purpose of election. The Election Commission will need to work alongside the employees of the local bodies to prepare the framework for the elections.
Even though employees are active in local bodies at village and city level, they take cover of ‘legal complications’ to deprive the people of essential services (citizenship certificate, land revenue payment etc). Such problems would not have arisen had there been elected officials in place.
The past experience shows that in terms of development works, some resources are spent during the first quarter but in the subsequent quarters, budget are not released on time and even if they are released, they are not spent. Although VDCs and municipalities show great progress on paper, the same is not the case in reality. Even though the Local Self Governance Act 1999 and its rules have provisions on plan formulation, implementation and evaluation, the local bodies are not found abiding by the rules. The major reasons for that are – the employees are not accountable to the local bodies, rather they are accountable to the government; failure of political parties to involve in the every step of the process due to their preoccupation with conflict; concentration of most VDCs into a room in the district headquarters etc.
The hope, at this moment, is that the constitution written by the CA will ensure the operation of local bodies as per the public desire. However, before the election it is necessary to ensure essential service delivery to the people by forming the local bodies as per the Article 139 (2) of the interim constitution.
It will be effective if the eight parties form local bodies by taking into consideration the influence of other parties, as well, wherever necessary and by including them when nominating representatives for the VDCs, DDCs and municipalities.
As the elected CA will be working for a long time (around two years), the government will need to form the local bodies for appropriate period (around five years) to manage the local bodies during the transitional phase before a fresh local election is held.
It is absolutely vital to ensure the secure atmosphere for the local bodies’ employees to work. According to the Ministry of Local Development, there are 1500 VDC secretaries’ positions lying vacant. It is, therefore, necessary to change the LSGA and rules to create a situation whereby other legal provisions that contradict with LSGA are automatically nullified. Then, the ministry should be authorized to appoint the VDC secretaries for five-year period.
In order to effectively spend the budget, there should be provision authorizing that at least 25 percent of the budget will be spent through local bodies in cooperation with civil society and communities. Besides, since the main role of the members of legislative parliament is to give a new direction to the country through CA, the provision allowing them to spend Rs one million in their constituency should be revoked. This amount should rather be channeled through Association of DDCs of Nepal (ADDCN), Municipal Association of Nepal (MuAN), National Federation of VDCs in Nepal (NAVIN) and NGOs active in this sector.
The Article 138 of the interim constitution should be immediately implemented by forming a high level commission to implement the concept of ending the unitary nature of the state and ushering in the democratic and federal system. If the commission is allowed to independently submit a draft framework on the state structure to the elected CA, the citizens of Nepal might not have to go through similar problems in the days to come.
(Pradhan is the president of Rural Development Foundation)
