Just before she was bereaved, the President Samia Suluhu Hassan, made remarks that point to the need of strong and effective local government authorities in the country.
In a way, this can be seen as a follow-up to her action, when structuring her government after last year’s General Election, when she transferred the dossier of Regional Authorities and Local Government from the President’s Office to that of the Prime Minister; where the action is.
Months have gone by and the impact of this move now needs to be realised. That is why she called on Local Government Authorities (LGAs), to pull up their socks and: raise more local revenue, spend more on development programmes and reduce wastage; ensure cleanliness especially in urban areas (she specifically mentioned Dar es Salaam as being dirty); regulate urban commercial activities, especially those undertaken on the streets, in front of other traders who carry licenses; and prepare for a large intake of students.In many countries of the world, you will find that LGAs operate at sub-national level and as agents of the central government.
Friction occurs occasionally, and central-local relationship fluctuate between centralization, decentralization and recentralization.Decentralisation means allowing more powers for LGAs, which, in principle, while observing subsidiarity, are supposed to have local autonomy and encourage local democracy and citizen participation.
Decentralization could take various forms: delegation, de-concentration and devolution. The story of the evolution of local government in Tanzania shows a migration between these various forms of decentralization.While central governments retain most powers, especially when it comes to raising revenue, they root for effective LGAs since these are key in realizing the cherished national development.
That is why Tanzania embarked on a Local Government Reform Programme (LGRP) in 1998 following up on the Policy Paper on Local Government Reform (1996).
The preferred form of decentralization was “Decentralisation by Devolution”, and this is the current situation.Yet, there seems to be a lot of re-centralization, demonstrated, among others, by the high reliance on the central government for revenue; and what has been dubbed the “agencification” of service delivery such as roads, and water supply and sanitation.
Also, a number of professionals, working within LGAs, are answerable to sector Ministries.LGAs (which number 184 currently) are expected to be largely autonomous institutions which can make local policy and operational decisions consistent with the country’s laws, policies and institutions, with powers to mobilise human, financial and other resources.
This needs nurturing, particularly, building capacity building to get appropriate personnel at local levels. Local government in general and local government finance in particular, are areas that need specialized personnel.
There are experts who specialize in local government finance, who may be instrumental in identifying local revenue sources considering the following factors, among others: revenue yield, collection costs, equity, economic efficiency and neutrality, ability to implement (political acceptability), and sustainability.Higher levels of local government finance may involve the ability to raise debt such as through municipal bonds. This requires experts well-versed in public finance.
In this way LGAs may be able to finance large infrastructure development.There is also a need to have a proper formula of revenue sharing between the central government and LGAs. Worldwide observation suggest that central governments tend to be the largest mobiliser of national revenue and other resources, leaving small and problematic sources to LGAs.
Sometimes there is a conflict between the various levels of government as to which authority should levy revenue from which source. In Tanzania, in the past decades, there has been a trug-of-war between TRA and LGAs as to who should collect property tax, billboard fees, fuel levy and telecommunication tower fees.Local Government Reform should address the issue of revenue sharing in terms of revenue sources as well as transfers from the central governments, based on well-known formulae.
Many LGAs, moreover, are accused of engaging in unnecessary expenditure, and this needs to be rectified.
The President was concerned about cleanliness in urban areas. The solution here is not for the authorities to undertake weekly or monthly cleaning up days. Refuse or waste management (collection and disposal), as well as local roads and drains maintenance are among the exclusive functions of LGAs.
Given the predicted forthcoming super el-Nino, functional drains cannot be over-emphasized. Way back in the 1990s, under the Sustainable Dar es Salaam Programme, solid waste management was high in the agenda. Considerations included waste sorting and recycling, transportation, sanitary disposal and the role of communities and the private sector.
A comprehensive system of waste management needs to be in place.Urban cleanliness starts at the individual and household levels. How many urban dwellers do not have clean and functional toilets, for example? Do we have cleanliness in public places such as roads, markets, health centres, schools, and public buildings and spaces; and does this cleanliness include proper toilets, and proper waste disposal arrangements?
The President made other remarks, all of which point to the need for strong, functioning LGAs. This means that the Prime Minister’s Office needs to go back and kick-start the Local Government Reform Programme, which may be sitting snugly on some shelf somewhere. The provisions therein, especially in terns of capacity-building, need to be operationalized.The National Vision 2050 envisages “Strong and Effective Local Governance.”
