Government, in partnership with the German Development Co-operation, has launched the Good Practices Guidelines to improve performance of councils in the country.
Areas covered in the documents include revenue collection, development and use of cadastre database and human resource management.
Others are development of service standards and charters, stakeholder communication and participation strategies, and strategic planning and management.
Minister of Local Government and Housing, Emerine Kabanshi, says the good practices guidelines were in line with the Patriotic Front (PF) government’s agenda to reach out to citizens in all parts of the country through the provision of good services.
Ms Kabanshi said government understood and appreciated the challenges that local authorities faced and as such the guidelines would not only aid in decentralisation but also provide councils with tools to confront the complex situation they operated in.
She said this in Lusaka yesterday at the launch for the Good Practice Guidelines for councils in Zambia.
The minister said the launch was timely following the Ministry of Finance’s training of additional councils last year in preparation for the Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks and Activity Based Budgets (MTEF/ABB) to align local authorities’ budgets to the central government budget format.
She added that the manuals, particularly those on strategic planning and revenue collection, would provide the councils with the new procedures that the budget format required.
Ms Kabanshi said she was aware that all Provincial Local Government Officers (PLGOs) had familiarised themselves with the manuals and thus urged the officers to share the guidelines with the councils in their respective provinces not only in hardcopy form but also in content.
She emphasised that the decentralisation process was not an end in itself but a reform process that would contribute to a more equitable distribution of wealth, improved service provision and stronger political participation by all Zambians.
And German Ambassador to Zambia Bernd Finke has said more could have been achieved when it came to the implementation of various decentralisation programmes that have been embarked on in the country during the last ten years.
Ambassador Finke said his government followed with interest the decision of the Zambian government to create additional districts stating a need for coherent implementation strategy to mainstream decentralisation in all government activities.
He said decentralisation was a multi-sectorial cross cutting issue affecting everyone and therefore a road map clearly outlining steps to be taken within a specified timeframe would go a long way in securing future support for the process.
ZANIS
Interesting..but in Zambia we are good at having things on paper but never implemented..the decentralisation policy and decentralisation imlementation plan were drafted 12 and 5 yrs ago if im not mistaken but implementation nikisi..how many bills and revised bills are still waiting to be ratified..lets not even start with the constitution mhmm anyway we wait with bated breath!
So you needed the Germans to tell you that? …almost 50 years of independence? I can bet you there are documents that prescribe behavior and efficiency that are just sitting gathering dust. I know that the Local Government statutes were very well articulated way back in the 70s. We just need to revisit what went wrong and revert. External cooperation even to lead your local affairs? Eish!!!!
This PF government is dangerous, they are only dealing with controversial countries. Why on earth can Sata decide to adopt systems used to control Jews in German?
Kabimba just came back from a communist conversion with Castro’s party.
I stop..
mmm bane ,ur joking right?u need to have a few seats for that..’used to control Jews in German’ u do know we are in the 21st century right..the GIZ has done alot of work (among other things) world wide on governance and strategic planning..so im sure this is an amalgamation of best practices..and besides international cooperation follows a policy of harmonisation -that is to align itself with and to strengthen existing local policy and programs..banee lets be serious with our promouncements..such sensationalist statements are no different form Hitler propaganda -google is ur friend -infact google shud be ur sista in christ!!
The development of “cadastre database” is most interesting, most welcome and stands out for me…it is a digital database which is essentially a computerised map of property boundaries and the related property description of all land parcels in a city. It is an ideal base for searching, planning and analysing land related information and is used by most local governments for these purposes.
Not to forget a money earner. Much needed improvement that should make for great potential ROI when completed. Well noted Jay Jay.
kabanshi We have no time for reading. How do you expect concils to perform while you know very well that you dont fund them. I will give two examples, the new districts chikankata, chirundu and old ones Chibombo and kafue have not received then money not even the CDF. All these are near Lusaka madam u can even ask Liato to take underground/.
The councils continue to underperfom due to nepotism in the recruitment of human resource and in the financial management of revenues.
My prayer is that this document will come to fruition in time but knowing the councils, it will be in the shelves collecting dusts as the majority of employees are from one big family of nepotism.