Principals Secretaries asked to speed up devolution
Principal Secretary responsible for Administration in the Office of President and Cabinet (OPC), Cliff Chiunda has appealed to all government principal secretaries to remove all obstacles that are slowing down the finalization of the process of decentralization.
He said this on Tuesday in Salima when he opened a meeting for PSs on the progress of decentralization, which was organized by the Ministry of Local Governnement and Rural Development.
Chiunda said despite the many challenges, it is important to note that as of present, the process of decentralization has reached up to 50 a per cent mark.
He asked for support from the controlling officers to speed up the processes in their ministries.
“Progress has been at 60 per cent in sector, fiscal and human resource devolution, including establishment of institutional and legal frameworks to support decentralization and quality improvement of service delivery standards,” Chiunda noted.
“Specifically, your support is sought towards ensuring that sectors earmarked for devolution have done so; that necessary human resources have been transferred to support devolved functions and necessary fiscal resources are transferred annually, as envisaged by the National Decentralization Policy,” he added.
Chiunda pointed out that slow pace of fiscal decentralization, technical capacity deficiencies, inadequate legal framework for an effective local government system, tensions among key stakeholders competing to maximize their role in Local Government are some of the key detractors for achieving full devolution.
Principal Secretary for Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Kiswell Dakamau expressed concern that 20 years after the decentralization policy was adopted and decentralization act was passed, the process is still dragging.
He pointed out that his Ministry has organized the workshop to update PSs on progress and appeal for their commitment to finalise the process.
