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Lovemore Chikova
Development Dialogue
The Devolution and Decentralisation Policy approved by Cabinet recently will address some grey areas around the concept.
With the implementation of devolution being fast-tracked, many have been asking questions on the capacity of lower structures to successfully implement the development concept.
Issues regarding inefficiencies, mismanagement, corruption and maladministration, especially in local authorities, have been constantly raised before.
Other local structures, including provinces, actually lack human resources to provide a roadmap for the turnaround of fortunes.
There is need for expertise in technical issues like budgeting and engineering, which skills can be lacking at the lower level structures.
But the Devolution and Decentralisation Policy identifies some of these issues and provides the way forward on how they will be addressed.
Devolution seeks to empower local communities with the leeway to lead in economic development in their areas.
The 56-page Devolution and Decentralisation Policy opens with a foreword by President Mnangagwa, who makes it clear that devolution does not mean Zimbabwe is a federal State.
Instead, it will maintain its unitary State status, while creating three tiers of government — the national Government, provincial and metropolitan councils and local authorities.
President Mnangagwa notes that the “major objective of the policy is to promote in Zimbabwe sustainable, representative, accountable, participatory, inclusive governance and socio-economic development”.
This gave rise to a policy that guides the process of removing ambiguities, gaps, inadequacies and impractical provisions, which might be inherent in the Constitution, particularly with regard to how provincial and metropolitan councils will operate.
In this way, the Devolution and Decentralisation Policy becomes a major document underpinning the attainment of Vision 2030 aimed at achieving an upper middle income economy.
What is also important about the devolution policy is that it acknowledges reasons why urban councils and rural district councils have been failing to bring development in areas of their jurisdiction.
This is despite both types of councils already enjoying some form of devolved decision making as they are governed by the Urban Councils Act and the Rural District Councils Act.
The two laws clearly specify the powers the councils already have in terms of collecting and allocating resources and decision making on developmental programmes.
But the Devolution and Decentralisation Policy identifies gaps in areas of policy making, spatial and development planning, land surveying and GIS and engineering and analysis of local services value chains.
Other gaps are in designing correct cost recovery systems for delivered services, conducting baseline surveys and analysis of the data and establishing viable revenue streams and effective revenue collection mechanisms.
The local authorities have also been struggling in streamlining local investment with national development plans, promoting ease of doing business and developing bankable project proposals.
There has also been lack of ability to operate modern accounting and financial management systems and packages, preparing of revenue estimates for submission to fiscal authorities and generating appropriate financial statements, in approved formats, to enable audits in accordance with the Constitution.
To help the lower structures in these areas, the Devolution and Decentralisation Policy outlines capacity building exercises that will be undertaken to empower officials.
These include induction and routine training for councillors and refresher courses for managers so that they appreciate new trends and technologies to ensure effective execution of the devolved functions.
Government ministries will be expected to hold training programmes in areas of their responsibility and to budget for such training.
Other organisations in civil society and international cooperation partners are encouraged to help with capacity building in the local authorities.
It is in this light that since councillors are elected on political party tickets, the parties should also take part in ensuring they are empowered to make major decisions.
And this should start from the selection of candidates to represent the parties in council elections.
Doubts have been cast on the pedigree of councillors, some of whom are accused of failing to grasp basic issues because they were not educationally prepared for the tasks ahead.
It is in respect of the shortcomings in councils in terms of human resources that central Government will deploy personnel to provinces to assist with the crafting of appropriate economic development and spatial development plans.
The Devolution and Decentralisation Policy sets the mandate and tasks which the provincial and metropolitan councils and local authorities are expected to fulfil.
They are expected to formulate local investment and development plans, which are in tandem with National Investment and Development Master Plans.
To fulfil the letter and spirit of devolution, the councils will have to consult local communities, traditional, political and civic leaders and private and public enterprises to enhance their work.
Government agencies operating in the provinces should also be consulted to have an input into investment and development plans.
The Devolution and Decentralisation Policy mandates the lower level structures to come up with implementable economic and social development plans.
“These plans must target exploitation of natural resources and other endowments including skilled and unskilled labour resources,” reads the policy.
In the past, councils faced inadequate Government financial support and unfunded mandates, and this was worsened by lack of autonomy, especially in economic and administrative spheres of management.
Other reasons which hindered councils from performing to expectations are cited in the devolution policy as massive population growth and movement, lack of local participation and civic responsibility, short supply of functioning equipment and machinery and failure or inability of ratepayers to pay charges and taxes.
There are also human resources constraints among professional staff and skewed priorities which are biased away from service delivery.
The Devolution and Decentralisation Policy outlines what will be done to address these issues to ensure that the gaps that hindered councils from successfully implementing developmental programmes are addressed.
The aim being to improve efficiency in the running of the councils, and ensuring that everyone plays their part in ensuring that devolution becomes a success.
The policy states that under devolution, central Government will play an oversight and supervisory role to mitigate potential leakages posed by the inefficiencies, corporate governance malpractices and corruption that characterise councils.
Of late, questions have been asked on the running of councils, especially the urban councils, where massive corruption is being unearthed.
In Harare, the council has become almost incapacitated after many of its officials, including former mayor Herbert Gomba and some councillors, were arraigned before the courts for corruption mainly related to land.
The new policy envisages transparency and accountability in the way lower structures of governance will conduct their work because of the tight monitoring that comes with devolution.
The synergy that will be created between central Government and local authorities will ensure that technocrats are assigned to specifically work on the implementation of devolution.
This will address the inefficiencies existing in local authorities in terms of budgeting, projects formulation, implementation and evaluation.
Treasury will allocate funds to provinces and local tiers whose expenditure needs exceed their revenue inflows.
Since public funds will be involved, the Office of the Auditor-General will be roped in to watch over the use of the funds by the lower tiers of government.
The provincial and metropolitan councils will be allowed to set up and retain local income revenue streams for re-investment.
These revenue stream include grants, rates, levies special levies, fees and service charges, rent and hire charges, licenses and permits and loans.
The Devolution and Decentralisation Policy will go a long way in ensuring that the developmental concept becomes a success.
Through this policy, it has become clear to everyone on the roles they are supposed to play and for what outcomes.
Online Reporter