The new Local Administration Law represents an opportunity to bring about tangible changes in development and service delivery across the governorates. But as is the case with other legislation and public policies, creating a real impact depends on implementation and on the way the institutions concerned are managed in the country.
اضافة اعلان
Under the law recently approved by the House of Representatives, municipal councils have an opportunity to transform municipalities from bloated, debt-burdened entities into agile and effective institutions that provide better services to citizens and play a central role in development and economic activity.
However, this depends on the caliber of the people leading them—not merely managing them.
The law limits executive management powers to qualified technical staff, headed by the executive director, while leadership and strategic direction fall within the responsibilities of the mayor and municipal council.
Here, the state, through all its institutions, must ensure that leading figures in the governorates are given the opportunity to compete, so that we can guarantee the arrival of influential, clean, respected figures who enjoy the confidence of citizens to positions of leadership.
Governorate councils have taken on a new form under the Local Administration Law. Elected figures representing the main sectors in each governorate will make up these councils.
They are expected to have expertise and specialization in their respective fields, without narrow electoral interests.
This should greatly help establish a productive relationship with the executive councils in the governorates and with municipal councils, their key partners in developing programs and implementing development plans.
If this experiment does not succeed in its first test, governorate councils will lose their justification for existence in the next electoral cycle following next year's elections.
What lessons have been learned from the experience of the past decade in dealing with governorates and development projects?
In my view, decentralization, which topped the state's public policy agenda as a means of improving conditions in the governorates, failed to achieve its objectives.
All it did was create additional links in the bureaucratic decision-making chain, without making a meaningful difference in performance and achievement.
One Cabinet meeting in a governorate each year can accelerate development plans and service projects at a pace far exceeding what governorate councils and their executive councils can accomplish in a year or two.
During a single tour by the prime minister to several service facilities in a governorate or district, we can witness tangible improvements that surpass what several executive administrations, lacking the authority to make decisions, have been unable to achieve.
Thanks to the centralization of government decision-making in Amman and direct follow-up from the top of the government hierarchy, we were able, for the first time, to build 86 new schools in less than a year, in addition to renovating dozens of schools and constructing new classrooms as extensions to existing schools.
As the new academic year begins, we are also embarking on a bold experiment in school transportation for students in southern governorates who have long struggled to reach schools located far from their homes.
It is a step that carries considerable risks if implementation fails, but show me one pioneering experiment that did not face the risk of failure before it was implemented! Is this concern enough to abandon it before even trying?
The point I am making is that laws, regulations and policies become worthless in the absence of competent and courageous leadership willing to take responsibility.
Across our governorates, we suffer from a severe shortage of leadership-level officials. The director of education in a governorate should possess the competence of a minister and the courage of a prime minister.
Reforming the leadership structure in the governorates is more important than decentralization and other futile debates.
The position of governor is at the forefront of this reform agenda. We need a governor with the stature of a minister, not merely an administrative official stripped of leadership and authority.
