Municipal Governance
Setting Good Examples

By Mukti Rijal

A NEWS item has it that the Butwal municipality is being aided by the world’s soccer governing body. FIFA to build a football training centre. According to the deal, FIFA will finance the construction of the soccer training facility at the cost of twelve million rupees in which football coaches and trainees will be accommodated. Moreover, under the deal the soccer governing body will help the municipality to construct a stadium with seat-capacity of around ten thousand. The municipality is committed to contribute twenty per cent of the total amount pledged by the soccer governing body for the project.

Support

However, private sector has come to the aid of the local body committing to bear the amount which has to be borne by the municipality. The transport enterpreneurs and businessmen have especially extended support to municipality. Butwal municipality has thus been able to mobilise support of the private sector to implement several projects especially in building and improving physical infrastructures. The initiatives mounted by the municipality in cooperation with private and citizen sector have spruced up the city. The city has worn a new face buttressed by an assortment of facilities. Civic amenitities and infrastructures have improved. A new and modern bus terminal has started its operation. It has reduced the crowd and congestion by which the historic city and commercial hub of the western Nepal was severely laden with. The municipality has promoted public private partnership to use resources and energy of the private enterpreneurs for public service and facilities.

The concept of involving private sector in improving municipal services and adding new civic utilities gained a new thrust after the Local Self Governance Act entered into effect in 1999. The local bodies have been recognised as self-governing institutions. The entities have started to exercise some autonomy and used competencies and mandates to strengthen their capacity by securing participation of private and citizen sectors.

The preamble to the Act itself speaks of strengthening local bodies as institution to enhance participation of people—private sector and citizens-including different ethnic groups and disadvantaged communities in bringing about social justice and equity. Moreover, the preamble to the Act explains the intent as to constitute local bodies for the development of the local self governance system in a manner that they are able to make decisions on the matters affecting the day to day needs and lives of the people by developing local leadership.

The Local Self Governance Act enunciates principles and policies of local self governance and requires the government to develop powers and responsibilities to make the local bodies capable and efficient in self governance. Moreover, the law requires the government—both central and local government—to encourage the private sector to participate in strengthening self governing process by providing basic services for sustainable development.

Section 115 of the Act provides for coordination between municipality and citizen sector. Municipalities are required to maintain coordination with governmental, non-governmental and funding agencies in implementing different services and programmes in order to remove duplication and enhance complementing role among the agencies and institutions.

Similarly, section 119 of the Act stipulates that the municipalities should implement and operate projects through formation of user groups. User groups formed of the people who get direct benefits the project.

Section 121 of the Act requires the municipalities to encourage citizen sector including private sector especially in identifying, formulating operating, evaluating repair and maintenance of the town development programmes.

Section 127 of the Act has provision for approving of bids sanctioning procurement and awarding contracts. It provides that the municipalities execute development projects either itself or through citizen sector, user groups and private sector. The role of the municipal government, according to law, is therefore to perform as a catalyst and enabler but not the executor or implementer of projects. The law seeks to promote and strengthen public-private partnership so that the citizen sector, not bureaucracy, would have a seminal role in municipal governance and development.

Example

Municipalities like Butwal have demonstrated some good examples to show that public-private partnership is important in improving municipal services and involving citizen sector for development.

Economic Diplomacy And Resource Mobilisation 

By Dr. Badri Pokhrel

RESOURCE constraint has become a serious problem in fostering the desired scale of economic development. Resources have been inadequate to meet the expectations of the people. Different studies have found that potential resources are not tapped or properly utilised. On the other hand, low resource base, natural handicaps, underdeveloped status of the country, poor mentality of the people, visionless leadership and corrupt nature of the public authorities are the real causes of resource constraint. They are equally responsible for poor resource mobilisation.

Assurance

With the advent of multiparty democracy, people’s aspirations have increased manifold. In the initial stages after the restoration of democracy, political leaders assured the people without calculating the resources available and supply procedures that they would fulfil their demands. However, resources are scarce and the distribution pattern has not been changed as required, and authorities mismanaged the available resources due to the lack of proper systematisation, corruption and lack of vertical and horizontal coordination between the public service delivery agencies. Government rules and regulations did not try to solve these real practical problems. These realities further deteriorated the economic opportunities of the people.

When globalisation emerged, the government adopted the path of open economy and liberalisation. Under this open economy a new industrial policy has been adopted. The incentives and concessions for the industries under the Industrial Enterprises Act is being provided through one window system. Except the areas of defense, public health and environment related industries, the license system has been withdrawn. Such a policy measure was expected to establish, expand and modernize the industries.

Considering the overwhelming expectations of the people and the low resource base of the nation, some diplomatic efforts in resource generation has been started. At present, Nepalese Embassies are encouraged to engage in promoting trade visits and periodic discussions with the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry for investment, information and resource transfer. It is true that the private sector interactions and outcomes of the trade missions are being more effective to tap the foreign resources which are gradually mitigating the burden of bilateral as well as multilateral foreign assistance. To reiterate and successfully gear up this reality into effective action, Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made an action on ‘how to make effective economic diplomacy’ in its annual programme.

The government is pushing and encouraging the private sector to accelerate the economic development activities. Tax policies are being improved. The parliament passed New Income Tax Act Bill. Tax policies are being improved to mobilise additional resources. Value Added Tax has been already been introduced. Administrative arrangements in implementing the VAT and income tax has been carried out. Two different departments have been merged recently. All those correction measures are introduced with three major bases:- Experience, suggestive measures of the researches made within Nepal and abroad, and suggestion of the donor countries. Apart from these three measures some corrections are made in the basis of cost plus formulae. These activities prove that Nepal is virtually trying to catch the pace of economic development through various endeavours in seeking all round enhancement of economic development from the point of resource mobilisation.

Thus, Nepal is trying to catch various methods, measures and experiments to accelerate the pace of economic development. Such efforts are initiated from both internal as well as external sources. In order to encourage and simplify the internal sources number of measures like open market policy, free competition, deregulation, private sector enhancement, liberal but acute rules and acts, and the sale of public holdings are introduced. Similarly in order to attract the foreign resources, foreign investments are encouraged commerce and industry policies are changed.

A lot of efforts have been made, and the endeavours to amend and reform the Acts, policies and practices have been initiated. However, the poverty of the nation is unchanged. Financially capable people are not assured of their investment. A gloomy environment is being spreading all over the country and the message like this in abroad is spread. Many industries are badly affected since couple of months due to the unwanted, unjust and violent activities of the Maoists terrorists.

Reality

Present day world shows the reality of good relation and mutual understanding in the whole globe. Not a single country is self-dependent and sufficient. To work in comparative advantage is beneficial to all. Such a universally accepted realisation of investment circulation through foreign investment has not been exception in Nepal. To articulate and translate this global practice into action the government has been utilising diplomatic missions in the name of economic diplomacy established abroad and the policies to invite the foreign investments are made friendly in the nation. This might support and even to let know all including the Maoist activists who are now destroying development infrastructure that economic development is the prominent need of the people rather than the political quarrel.

The Strict High School Teacher

By Shreedhar Khanal

AMAR Babu was a very old fashioned geography teacher of Durbar High School during the Rana regime. He did not spare the rod and spoil the child throughout his academic career even after the advent of democracy in Nepal. But he was regarded as one of the best teachers in Kathmandu. The students including the guardians knew well that was a Bengali teacher from Kolkata, India, but they did not know his full name. He was just Amar Babu to the students, their guardians and all other teachers of Durbar High-School. Even the headmaster called him Amar Babu although he knew the latter’s full name. He was very strict about home works and he wanted pin-drop silence when was teaching in the class room. If a student made a slight he would surely be punished. Amar Babu could not tolerate disturbance of any kind. Once a student loudly coughed while he was explaining about the monsoon in the classroom. He stopped speaking and scolded the student with harsh words. He picked up the rod and approached the coughing student for beating. The student did not stretch out his hand and said that he had caught cold and was helplessly coughing. The teacher did not believe him and stooped to smell the student breadth. He ordered the student to breathe deeply so that he could detect whether he had smoked or not. It was found that he had not smoked. He was pardoned and advised to go home and take rest. If Amar Babu had smelt tobacco, the student would have been severely punished.

Once Amar Babu saw one of his students smoking somewhere after the school hour. Next day, he summoned the student before him and harashly asked why he had smoked. It was against law to smoke before crossing the age of sixteen. The student lied and said that he never smoked. Amar Babu told the class that he had seen it with his own eyes last evening at Asan. Now the student had committed double crime, i.e. smoking and lying. Then he shouted at the student using some harsh words and turned him black and blue. Amar Babu lied to all rowdy students that he knew their parents and threatened them to expose their mischief to them. Although the students knew that he did not know their parents, they were alert to the possibility of meeting him anywhere in spare time. They did not like the teacher catch them smoking, red-handed joking or talking against him. On the other hand, the studious students liked him very much and regarded him as a perfect teacher. He explained to them the complicated terms of geography so clearly that they did not need to go through their textbook.

Amar Babu was not only my geography teacher but also a mentor. Whenever he met me or any of his students in spare time, he stopped to talk. First he asked me how I was making progress in my studies. He asked me about my health and my parents. Then he mildly asked me if I had got any bad habit like smoking, drinking, over-eating and over-playing etc. He advised me to give up the company of dirty, lazy and mischievous friends. In his opinion, I was not supposed to steal money from my father’s wallet, not supposed to lie, to smoke, to drink and to tease girls. I was supposed to study hard. I could smoke and even drink If I liked later in my life. But lying, stealing and teasing were to be strictly avoided for good. I wondered that rude and strict teacher Amar Babu inside the class-room could be so gentle and friendly to his students outside. Even after his retirement, he used to behave like a true gentleman towards his ex-students whom he occasionally met in the market. He advised them to buy only seasonal vegetables on health ground. As for himself, being a Bengali, he always preferred fish to other seasonal vegetables and said that fish is more nutritious and digestible than any other vegetables. The late High-school teacher Amar Babu taught his ex-students even after retirement and until his death.