Fixing provincial councils

President Maithripala Sirisena this past weekend spoke of the importance of enhanced cooperation between the Government and provincial councils in fulfilling national development objectives. The President, speaking in broad terms, addressed the need for all provincial councils to implement similar policies in realising common development goals, and in the process touched upon a key point. He said the implementation of policies in provincial councils is based on the character of the individual carrying forward the policy.

On the face of it, this might be a fairly innocuous matter-of-fact statement, however anyone who has tried to get any form of administrative approval from their nearest pradeshiya sabha, district secretariat or provincial council may be inclined to read a little more into it.

Provincial councils have long been dismissed by the public as white elephants that gulp down resources and provide little in return, a sentiment which has been underscored by corruption, inefficiency and mismanagement for decades. No matter the colour of the Government in power, bribes are in play at these offices and the situation has become calcified to the extent that instead of attracting their own investment and becoming competitive stakeholders of the economy, the provinces have essentially become fiefdoms of corrupt public officials and elected politicians.

The 13th Amendment lists 37 items as subjects devolved to the provinces in what is named as the Provincial Councils List. Seen as foremost among these are police and public order, education and educational services and land, because each of these subjects is further described in an appendix devoted to each. 

Agriculture and agrarian services, health, irrigation and social services and rehabilitation are the other significant subjects delegated to the provinces.

In an ideal world, an ordinary citizen should be able to resolve most issues through his or her local council and should have no need to contact the relevant Member of Parliament unless a relative is stranded in a foreign country or other international or inter-provincial issue. 

Yet, the deeply flawed system of provincial councils continues to be a burden, as to date the central government has had to either maintain or expand its bureaucratic arm in regard to the devolved subjects, with education and transport being prime examples.

Politicians have fought back against budget cuts by appealing directly to the President while the Finance Ministry has attempted to roll back allocations by pointing out that funds are left unused. Given the tight fiscal consolidation path the Government claims to be on, streamlining the functions of provincial councils would not only increase budgetary efficiency, it would also encourage investment to move to the provinces; not to mention making many citizens happy that administration is done competently.

The Government has often been preoccupied with resolving problems at the centre and often forgotten the crucial powers held by municipal councils and provincial councils to impact the daily lives of the public. 

Sometimes political battles are won and lost in the backyard and hopefully the President’s comments are a sign that the Government is finally taking note of the need for transparent and competent branches of local government.