AMMAN — The joint parliamentary
“legal and administrative” committee continued its meetings on Sunday to
discuss the municipalities and
decentralization bill for the year 2021, which
was included on the agenda of the Parliament’s extraordinary session which
began Sunday.
اضافة اعلان
Member of the committee, Ali
Al-Tarawneh, said that the panel began approving the articles of the law last
Wednesday, and will continue its discussions ahead of forwarding the version of
the law to the House.
He said there is no specific date
for the MPS to launch the debate on the law, which is considered part of
political reform package, adding that the panel is taking its time to discuss
every article and give it enough time before it is finally approved, having in
mind that the extraordinary session has a limited timeframe.
According to Tarawneh, the first and
second articles of the bill were approved. The first sets the name of the bill
which was changed by the committee to “The Local Administration Law” instead of
“The Municipalities and Decentralization Law”.
The second article is related to definitions,
which were approved.
The panel has been meeting with all
actors who have stakes in the local governance, including municipal figures,
political party leaders and activists.
Observers look at the
decentralization experience as “successful on paper, failed on the ground”. Stakeholders
started to call for amendments to the relevant legislation to remedy the
situation. A 2019 academic research paper concluded that “as a result, Jordan's
local administration essentially remains dependent on the local arms of
centralized power.”
The extraordinary session officially
started Sunday but the lawmakers will start actual business on Wednesday to
handle 11 pieces of legislation, including the Supplementary Draft Budget Law
for the fiscal year 2021, a draft law amending Companies Law, Draft Anti-Money
Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Law, Draft Law amending the
Integrity and Anti-Corruption Law, Labor Law amendments and changes to the Illicit
Gains Law, among others.
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