F.P. Report
PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has initiated second generation reforms envisaged with a string of initiatives to remove bottlenecks from local government system to make it more efficient for improved service delivery.
These reforms initiatives will guide the course correction process in local government system, which was established in 2015 under the Local Government Act 2013.
“KP government is keen to continuously work on the improvement of the system in order to streamline the business processes in the system for better and transparent utilisation of funds”, said Senior Minister for Local Government, Election and Rural Development (LGE&RD) InayatUllah Khan while speaking at a workshop here Monday.
The minister said the provincial government is committed for tracking of the development funds so that the funds reach to the citizens in time and on equitable basis. “This is good time to look back and see what is working and what is not working and have a fair assessment of the situation on ground for designing a futuristic road map”, the minister remarked.
Mr. Inayat hoped the workshop on institutional assessment of LG system will guide the course of second generation reforms to deepen devolution reforms and accelerate service delivery for communities and citizen.
The workshop was jointly organised by LGE&RD department and DFID funded Sub National Governance (SNG) Programme. It was attended by District Nazmeen, Deputy Commissioners as well as senior officers of provincial government departments.
Two reports on the performance of the local government system were released which were discussed in details in the workshop. Both the reports focusing on institutional assessment: one on District Governments and the other on Village and Neighbourhood Councils (VCNCs) identified a number of reform areas in the system to improve efficiency and transparency in the system.
Titled as second-generation reforms, these recommendations are being implemented by the provincial governments for which the district governments and VCNCs were taken on board during the workshop and their inputs were solicited.
A series of recommendations were made to improve performance in terms of compliance with the rules and regulations. It was suggested to create a district planning cadre, strengthen the office of district officer finance and planning. To establish a robust mechanism for increasing coordination among local government, finance and planning departments for compliance with P&D guidelines and budget rules.
Several recommendations were made for strengthening the financial system within the local government system. Currently, the financial system in LG system is facing challenges from budget preparation to allocation and utilisation of funds.
