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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
 Posted - 12 Apr 2006 : 18:25:57
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There is currently an act that is to signed to change the desigation of Commissioners to Governors proposed by SOS for Local Government. My observations are thus
1. The name governor is mostly used in decentralised local goverment structures and not one we currently see where every decision or official document is printed in and approved in Banjul.
2. Governors are titles used for very large administrative areas and in most cases Governors preside over territories larger than the whole of the Gambia.
3. Governors have some executive power to introduce taxes and spend of such monies generated for the development of their region. Will this mean that Governors will be able to do this.
4. In most cases Governors are allocated subventions from the Central Government to compliment local tax base. Is this going to happen.
5. Governors have usuallly worked in settings that have federal systems of government. Are we going to have independent regions like CRD or URD with their unique sets of sytems of administration and in many cases such legal instruments are different.
6. Would this mean that Governors will over see the local chiefs in their divsions or will they still be subjected to the authorty of the president even though they are elected officials have been removed in th past by the president without due consultation. Infact it is a mockery for the President to remove a democratically elected official without the consent of the electorate. There has to be checks and balances.
7. Are the Governors going to be elected. In many examples around the world they are political appointees who run on a party platform and as such they are not civil servants. The current arrangement is that Commissioners are Deputy permanet Secretaries who are sent around as adminisrative personalities and as such are supervised by both the Secratary General and the Local Government Ministry. They are infact part of the Adminstrative cadre. However, recently, your only ticket to being a Commissioner is to be afanatic and died hard Green Boy. No wonder they have all failed miserably and have caused more problems in the communities, that a sense of belonging, which is a trademark of rural life, has now been eroded. There are constant confrontations between local leaders to such extent that in some villages two alkalos have emerged and local taxes have been known to be collected by two individuals. There was an incident in jarra and also in sami and the trend is duplicated everywhere.
There are many questions that need answers. This is not decentralisation in its true sense. There has to be a whole revamping of local administratie structures to have meaningful developemt of the rural areas and this can only happen with a comprehensive programme and not change in designations. I am sure this name change is being pursued by some who feel pride in the title Governor. We are yet to see any meaningful decentralisation.
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“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.” |
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