Local Governance
Legitimacy And Efficiency

By Mukti Rijal

RECENTLY at a workshop held in Butwal participants discussed on several issues affecting the process of self governance and decentralisation in the country. The workshop organised under the auspices of a local civil society organisation featured fruitful interaction among the participants on the composition and structure of the local bodies including DDCs and VDCs. The discussion was prompted to respond to the proposals reportedly framed and set forth by the government to bring out some amendments in the Local Self Governance Act with special focus on the composition and representation system of the local bodies. The proposal was advanced especially with a view to introduce elements of functionality and efficiency in the local bodies since local government leaders and practitioners do complain time and again that the local bodies are oversized and unwieldy. The, elephantine size of the elected representatives at the village, municipal and district level bodies has given more articulation to the legitimacy and representation while efficiency and functionality of the local government has suffered to a larger extent. It is to be noted that local bodies have not developed and equipped themselves with human resources and capacity to cope with the challenges of development and governance. The large number of representatives elected by the people have worked to incite the needs and expectations of the masses while the concommitant strength of the local bodies in terms of staff, resources and capacity to meet the expectations of the people have remained almost unchanged or stagnant for the last several decades. The gap between the rising popular expectations and stagnating capacity of the local government to meet the needs and aspirations has compelled the policy makers and leaders search for the alternatives. The moot for amendment to some provisions of the local self governance act has been the consequence of the intent to give new spurt and impetus to local government capacity so that the governing bodies become active and functional.

However, the reduction of the size of elected representatives at different tiers of the local government will not ensure that local bodies become active , functional and result oriented. From democratic and legitimate point of view, it is recognised that more representatives guarantee more room for dialogue and consultation. Popular will and aspirations get more space to influence development and governance process at the local level. The oversized local bodies in terms of popular representation does not add any big burden on the resources to strain their performance. If the peoples’ representatives are given room for tasks relating to coordination and collaboration they produce better results and prove themselves that they are worthy and important assets to local institutions. Palpa DDC president presented a working paper in the aforesaid workshop and argued that there is no such compulsion as to warrant for amendment in the respective provisions of the local self governance act. Citing the case of the Palpa DDC he stated that all the DDC members have been more effective in their supervisiory functions as they are given tasks to supervise and coordinate activities at the area level. He told that there were Ilaka level coordination committees headed by the respective DDC members. The office of such committee is housed in one of the VDCs within the area (Ilaka) at no extra cost. Similarly, the Executive director of the National Association of VDCs in Nepal (NAVIN) presented a theme paper in the workshop and analysed the strengths and weaknesses of the composition of local government as provided in the local self governance act and concluded that the current framework was more representative and inclusive. Regarding the weaknesses he mentioned that the framework as it is oversized is not favourable for quick decision making and implementation. He suggested some improvements in the act but he did not favour sweeping amendment in the framework as introduction of the alien elements in the name of change and improvement might do more harm than good in the process.

The participants in the workshop especially the DDC presidents seemed more preoccupied with the notion of efficiency and functionality and suggested that the DDC president should be vested with right to nominate a few percentage of members at the committee at his own discretion. This right is necessitated especially to give leverage to the DDC chief so that he or she can induct experts in the body to advise him or her on important matters. However, some participants rejected the notion arguing that DDC presidents can appoint experts as advisors and consultants.

The prevailing local self governance act undoubtedly suffers from several weaknesses and definitely these need to be rectified. However, it is only two and half years since the law has come into force and not all provisions of the law have been tried as yet. It is premature to discuss about its amenments because such discussions are bound to distract the attention of the stakeholders concerned. Let us first implement the law and give attention to remove bottlenecks for its implementation. We should take initiative to amend it only when we have some tested grounds for it.

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