KABUL (Pajhwok): Provincial council members say that growing insecurity have prevented them to evaluate and observe projects’ implementations and local governance.
The Wolesi Jirga or lower house of parliament has barred provincial councils from evaluating local governance in 2014 election process.
Most of the provincial councils have closed their offices in protest against the parliament’s decision. However, the councils have regained the right based on a presidential decree.
A consultative workshop participated by all provincial council heads was held in capital Kabul on Sunday to discuss problems regarding the provincial councils.
Sayed Ahmad Khamosh, the local councils solidarity head, told the meeting titled ‘Consultative Workshop for Internal Procedure and Actions Mechanism of Provincial Councils Monitoring Role” that the gathering was aimed at strengthening evaluation role of provincial councils.
He said that they have introduced a clear procedure for provincial councils’ evaluation in coordination of the councils head in the past five months.
Nadir Naeem, deputy head of Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG), said the provincial councils had basic role in building partnership among all sectors and improving local governance.
But he said the councils had faced major problems. He added lack of clarity in the relations among provincial councils and local government departments, shortage of transport facility and office buildings and insecurity were main problems the provincial councils had faced.
The government is aware of it and efforts were underway to resolve the problems. The provincial council heads expressed concerns that insecurity has created problems for them to evaluate local governance.
Haji Ahmad Jafari, provincial council head for Maidan Wardak province, told Pajhwok Afghan News the new procedure has cleared their role of evaluation and resolve misunderstandings in their works.
But he concerned about law and order which was the main problem confronting them.
“Insecurity has prevented provincial council members from monitoring local governance properly, and they cannot go to remote areas to oversee projects’ implementation,” he said.
Mohammad Safdar Mohsini, the provincial council head of Baghlan province, said he had taken the problems in projects implementation and shared them with relevant organs, but no action was taken.
He said provincial councils were faced with security threats, particularly in Baghlan province. He said that he shared his concerns about insecurity with relevant security officials but no one has taken action.
However, Atta Mohammad Haqbayan, Zabul provincial council head, said that they have bridged the gap between the government and people, traveled to 10 districts and met with local people, Ulema and local elders and encouraged them to support the government.
He added that Zabul provincial council had also monitored projects’ implementations including the construction of airport, roads, and development projects in rural areas.
Eliminating corruption in government offices and preventing of violation of laws were other efforts of the council, he said.
Haqbayan also concerned about deteriorated law and order and said that lack of facilities and office building for the council were problems they had faced with. The building of Zabul provincial council was damaged in the wake of two suicide attacks few months ago.
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