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Zambia: Reintroduction of Local Govt Commission A Step in The Right Direction
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The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
EDITORIAL
5 August 2008
Posted to the web 5 August 2008
We do not understand the apprehension by some stakeholders over the planned reintroduction of the Local Government Commission of Zambia.
The Local Government Association of Zambia (LGAZ)'s argument that the commission would compromise the accountability of officers to local authorities is far from the truth.
We feel the fears by LGAZ and some other stakeholders are unfounded because we already have other bodies like the Teaching Service Commission, which deal with issues of recruitment, promotion and retirement and have never undermined the management.
It is rather strange that LGAZ and other stakeholders now calling for further consultation on the matter have, in fact, been part of the group that has been discussing this issue with the Government since 2005.
We therefore support the views of the Zambia United Local Authorities Workers Union (ZULAWU) for the Government to quickly introduce the Local Government Service Commission in order to enhance professionalism in councils.
As ZULAWU vice-president Misheck Nyambose says in the story that we carry on today's front page, it would be beneficial to the councils if an independent body looked at issues of recruitment, transfer and retirement of council officers.
There is no doubt that councils have failed to perform because councillors are not engaging workers on merit and that has killed the professionalism.
Reintroducing the Local Government Commission would increase transparency in the recruitment process for local authorities and ultimately the efficiency in councils would improve.
One of the major impediments to the speedy implementation of the decentralisation policy has been the serious lack of capacity in most councils to which power is supposed to be devolved.
It is still fresh in the minds of Zambians that a number of council budgets were rejected after the Ministry of Local Government and Housing noted that what they presented was unrealistic.
By enhancing professionalism, the creation of the Local Government Service Commission will boost the capacity of the local authorities to handle major tasks when the decentralisation policy is implemented.
We feel that the planned reintroduction of the commission is well intended because there is no precedent where the Government has deliberately created bodies to work in conflict.
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As stated earlier, we have similar bodies operating in other areas and there is no evidence of conflict in the execution of their duly mandated tasks.
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