Streamlining local govt. structures

These are the changes the President should contemplate, not changes to reinforce the authority of his party in places where it does not dominate. What he needs is for the lower levels of government to have an independent existence, with full authority in the limited areas in which it is empowered to function, with accountability to the people in its catchment area.

- BY PROF. RAJIVA WIJESINHA

I wrote recently about the need for government to radically rethink its approach in the light of the results of the local government election. But it is not only the approach to governance that needs to be reconsidered. For the confusion that has resulted from the current electoral system, with deals having to be done to secure control of a council, is ample reason to rethink the whole system.

For these deals do not have necessarily to be horse deals, with politicians arguing for their own advantage with little thought for benefit to the public. Even the most well intentioned have to enter into discussions in a good majority of the local authorities, and the temptation then to push personal agendas will be great.

But a simple solution lies to hand, if we reflect on the word control, the idea that some particular party needs to have power in a Council, exercised through leadership that has control of its finances. For we need to realise that such control is not necessary for local government, which should be about services, not the exercise of power.

Many years ago, when I took my responsibilities seriously, and decided when conducting meetings in several divisional secretariats to find out what the powers of local institutions, both elected and appointed, were, I consulted the expert on the subject, Asoka Goonewardene. He told me that local authorities statutorily had powers in, I think, seven areas, but not all these could be exercised because utilities for instance had been centralised - an exception, as I recall, being Kandy with regard to water services.