Khattak says district govts while be empowered to deal with affairs of devolved depts.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said on Tuesday that as the prime rule of business it would be mandatory for the Local Governments (LGs) in the province to strictly follow the transparency, merit, posting and transfer policies as well as the financial and administrative discipline of the provincial government while dealing with affairs of the district devolved departments.
He said that no discretionary power would be granted to the district governments on this account.
Khattak chaired a meeting held at CM Secretariat for detailed review of the draft Rules of Business (ROB) of LGs, the Planning and Development Guidelines for LGs, and composition and Conduct of Business Rules of KP LG Commission and the Provincial Finance Commission.
The meeting took crucial decisions to ensure independent and well disciplined working of all tiers of the LGs and finalized a number of rules to define the way they functioned and exercised their powers.
It was decided that development strategy of each district government would be chalked out by concerned District Government Development Committee (DGDC) to be formed under chairmanship of respective District Nazim and this forum would be authorized to approve or reject all development schemes of the district. The meeting decided that DGDC will be comprised of Deputy Commissioner, District Officers of Planning, Finance and Social Welfare departments, Executive Engineers of C&W and Public Health Engineering departments, Assistant Director Local Government and district head of concerned department. It also decided that the District Development Advisory Committees (DDAC) would continue to work independently and they would deal with affairs of the MPAs and federal government funded development schemes. However, District Nazim will be made ex-officio member of DDAC for coordination purpose only.
Under the P&D Guidelines, approved during the meeting, it would be necessary for all district governments to allocate 20% of their development funds each for education and health sectors, 10% for drinking water and sanitation services (DWSS), 5% each for Agriculture, Women Development and youth & sports activities while 30% would be spent on other sectors on discretion of the district governments. Similarly every Tehsil Council of the province will be allowed to spend 30% of its development budget on DWSS, 20% on municipal services, 10% on roads, 10% on youth, sports and women activities and the remaining 30% for other sectors.
Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on this occasion directed the LG department to hold elections of four members, two each from district and tehsil councils’ nazims, for incorporating them into the PFC under the Local Government Act 2013. He also directed to make arrangements for finalizing the composition of KP LG Commission.
He made it clear that the provincial and the newly formed district governments were bound to adhere to the relevant rules, laws and policies while conducting their respective official businesses. He said that since the chief executive of the province as well as members of the provincial cabinet enjoy no such powers which could allow them to make appointments or interference into transfers, postings and such other affairs of the provincial government’s departments, therefore, the district governments would also be required to follow the same course to maintain the administrative and management discipline in the province.
