Just after the sunset, the beautiful blue sky transformed into shades of fire. Darkness caught the surroundings in few minutes, and lights from the passing resorts appeared dimly red and yellow. Our speed boat was traveling through a black garden with red roses and sunflowers.
Despite the imaginary pictures from the view, my mind was very much bothered by the comments
and complaints received from the local council members. I believed every word of the atoll council president who shared his grievances during the closing statements of today's LGA workshop 2012 (Thulusdhoo). Even another council president said that the
government treats them as stepchildren, and most of the local councils are left
idle without money to serve their citizenry. As I was there to represent the national
budget of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury, I expected them to understand
that an ordinary civil servant could only pass the message to the policymakers. Most of
the problems they raised were regarding budget forecasting and management. The delay in local financing and insufficient budget allocation to these
councils has made their local developmental plans stalled. Understandably, these elected councilors could be having many unfulfilled promises to their
citizens, which is obstructed due to the insufficient administrative arrangements within the central government to harmonize.
As with the rapid growth of the world economy, Maldives' public sector failed to maintain pace with the twenty-first-century changes. While most developed countries used participatory planning and budgetary
methods for the decentralized administrative regions (to include their local publics
to voice their development), our island communities are still striving for
such arrangements. They had hoped with the new constitution (2008), which gave the
opportunity for decentralization. Decentralization means the transfer of power and authority from the central government to local councils to fulfill the needs of local citizens’ demands. Decentralization and the development of democratic local governance continue quietly to sweep the world from Bolivia to Bulgaria and from West Africa to South Asia; a wide variety of countries are increasing the authority of local governments and working to make them more responsive and effective. When the Decentralized
Administration Act 7/2010 of Maldives was passed, the citizenry of the regions expected the administrative and
financial arrangements would follow as stated in the constitution
and law. Councilors were elected, regionalized decentralized administrations were established, but the administrative-developmental progress was very low-speed. Maybe
the changes are too fast for the Maldives or the policymakers to be too slow on decision-making, or the public servants are too lazy to implement. After establishing decentralized administrative areas in the Maldives, the central
government did very little or hesitated on devolving the function stated
in Act 7/2010. It is clearly stated in the law to redistribute
authority, responsibility, and fiscal resources to provide municipal services and make development initiatives. Nearly two years of decentralized administrative
arrangements have been passed. We cannot consider that the transfer of
responsibility for planning, financing, and management of functions from the
central government and its agencies to local councils is happening, leaving the local councils aside with the elected councilors and their unfulfilled pledges to their citizenry.
Many isolated areas kept the decentralized
process at a halt while the financial and operational abilities of the councils are
manacled. Some of the issues are;
- - Inadequate training and awareness for local administrations and councilors.
- - Insufficient
Local Financing from the central government
- - Budget
allocations not in accord with article 83 of Act 7/2010.
- - Central
government’s inability to finance for carried down debts
- - Centralized
banking and payment
- - Inability to
collect local revenues
- - undefined legal
boundaries for the councils
- - Lack of
communication regarding centralized development projects and programs
focused on local areas.
- - Invalidated and disregarded Local development plans and financial plans.
There can be more problems
which kept paralyzing the local services and the local councilors to serve. If the central government does not urgently attend to these issues, then the
decentralized system in our democratic environment can crash soon.
Or the people may lose faith in their elected councilors.
We
understand that the transfer of power and devolving functions cannot be done
quickly, or it won’t happen overnight. If the central government believed in the
rights of its people, then the implementation is far from impossible. If they seize this moment to look
beyond the differences and focus on the challenges that affect us all, they can
make this right. It’s their choice.
By now, our speed boat has
along sided to jetty number 4, and I rode home after another day’s work and
hoping for better improvements in the future.
