'Three avenues of local government monitoring'

Federalism expert Dr. Anwar Shah Wednesday said that the performance of the local governments should be monitored on three avenues – fiscal health, service delivery and citizen’s satisfaction.

He said that the fiscal health of the local government should be monitored through fiscal rules and commercially audited statement while service delivery should be mapped through performance budgeting.

“Citizen satisfaction is best measured by independent survey of open website for complaints,” said the lead economist and team leader for public sector governance at the World Bank Institute.

He was speaking at a 2-day workshop on ‘Implementing Federal Governance – Lessons for Nepal’ for the journalists organized by Forum of Federations in collaboration with the Forum of Development Journalists’ in Bhaktapur.

Dr. Shah suggested local fiscal equalization transfers to address the financial and economic resource gaps in the provinces and local bodies in order to overcome threat of secession and create a sense of national unity, and also to secure a common economic union.

However, he warned that it could be a disincentive for local economic development, and it might weaken fiscal discipline and endanger the long term growth prospects.

Another expert Ms. Roberta Ryan, director of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government, said that balanced motivations for decentralized federal systems promote democratization and was a must for appropriate, effective and efficient service delivery.

“It also promotes effective and inclusive decision making at the local level which will have positive impact on social cohesion and economic development,” she opined.

Jaap de Visser, professor at Utrecht University, South Africa, stated that the federalism should accommodate diversity by combining self rule and shared rule.

“The shared rule – integration and cooperation between centre and sub-national units – is about sharing of national positions and bringing the sub-national units into the centre to participate in federal decision making,” he said.

As the resources mostly located at centre and people in provinces claim inclusion, shared rule is critically important in developing countries, he maintained.

“Shared rule can be exercised through federal parliament, federal executive, federal civil service and independent institutions.”