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DEVOLUTION PLAN – I:Country Information, Tiers or Level of Government

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Introduction To Public Administration­MGT111
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LESSON 40
DEVOLUTION PLAN ­ I
In the last lecture we discussed the office of Deputy Commissioner and the challenges it
confronted due to increased population and concentration of power in one office. Today we shall examine
the concept of devolution and local government and its structure.
Country Information
Pakistan has an area of 796,096 sq.km. Its estimated population is 145 million. It has four
provinces, territory of Islamabad and federally administered tribal areas. There are over 100 districts in the
country.
Prior to devolution of services to the local areas, the administrative structure was divided into
Province, Division and District. The real government functions were performed at the district level. The
division was headed by Commissioner and district by the Deputy Commissioner. As we discussed in the last
lecture the office of Deputy Commission was overloaded by work. The Deputy Commissioner became
inaccessible. Therefore, there was need for devolving the services to the people's representatives. We now
examine the definition of devolution.
Devolution Defined
Devolution is defined as the transfer of resources and power (and often, tasks) to lower-level
authorities which are largely or wholly independent of higher levels of government, and which are
democratic in some way and to some degree (Manor, 1997).
Encyclopedia Britannica:
"Local Govt. means the authority which determines and executes measures within an area inside
and smaller then the whole state."
Why Devolve?
What is the need for devolution? There could be many reasons to devolve but the main reason is
to: improve governance and public service delivery by increasing:
1. Allocative efficiency: through better matching of public services to local preferences. It
means that instead the centre deciding to provide service the local people should identity their
preferences for services.
2. Productive efficiency: through increased accountability of local governments to citizens,
fewer levels of bureaucracy, and better knowledge of local costs. It is more efficient to provide
services at local levels because people know their needs, they know at what cost services can be
provided and there will be fewer levels of bureaucracy.
Tiers or Level of Government
In a democratically devolved government, there are three levels of governments. These levels are:
1.
Central government at the centre
2.
Provincial or state government
3.
Local or devolved government
Obligatory Functions
Each level of government performs its own functions. For example the government at the Centre
has the responsibility of defence, currency regulation foreign affairs. As you may recall the Constitution
provides Federal Legislative List and Concurrent List, which defines the functions of federal government
and both federal and provincial government. But no functions are given for local government. However,
the Local Government ordinance provides certain obligatory functions that the local government must
perform. Some of these functions are:
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1.
Supply of wholesome water
2.
Construction and maintenance of public streets
3.
Lighting and watering public streets
4.
Regulation trades
5.
Maintenance and support of public hospitals
6.
Establishing and maintenances of primary schools
7.
Registration of births and death
8.
Naming streets and numbering houses
From these functions what we can infer is that these functions are very small in magnitude but very
essential for local areas and local people. So it remains the responsibility of the local government to provide
these services to local people.
Discretionary Functions
While the above are obligatory functions i.e. that local government must perform. There are
functions that local government may or may not perform. These are called discretionary function. Some of
the discretionary functions are:-
1.
Security or removing dangerous building or places
2.
Housing for low income groups
3.
Promotion of welfare of municipal employees
4.
Provision of transport facilities
Local Government in Pakistan
In 1947 the area that comprised Pakistan had not so developed systems of local government and
the local government existed was under severe bureaucratic control of the deputy commissioner who played
a crucial role in policy making.
The Period 1958-1969
In 1958 the "Basic Democracies" system was introduced, which created 80,000 "basic democrats,"
or union councilors in the country. These local leaders (union leaders at union council) constituted the
Electoral College for presidential elections and for elections to the national and provincial legislature created
under the constitution promulgated in 1962.
Under the Basic Democracy Ordinance 1959 areas were defined under the jurisdiction of a
municipal body.Town committees were set up for towns having population of less then 14000.Town
committees were expected to perform 37 functions including promotion of social welfare, health etc. In
urban areas each council elected a chairman amongst its member who served as executive head of town
committee.
Union council was also assigned 37 functions. The Tehsil council was to coordinate the activities of
union council and union committees in its jurisdiction. But Tehsil councils had no taxation powers like
union councils.
Until 1969 this arrangement listed. A general election was held in 1970 and in 1973 new
constitution was promulgated.
Constitutional Provisions of Local Government
The Constitution enforced on 14 August, 1973 by articles 175(3) that "Judiciary shall be separated
progressively from the executive within 3 years from the commencing day". Article 37(i) states that "The
state shall decentralize government administration so as to facilitate expeditious disposal of its business to
meet the convenience and requirement of the public". But there was no formal article in the Constitution
that would mention the Local Government Creation. As it is mentioned that governments from time to
time established local government. In 1959 the Basic Democracy Ordinance was promulgated and in 1979
also Local Government Ordinance was announced under which local body elections were held. This Local
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government ordinance is being amended in Punjab, Sindh and NWFP, while Balochistan's local
governments' ordinance 1980 is also being amended.
Local Government Plan 2000
There were two broad aim of Local Government Plan 2000. One was the Devolution of political
powers i.e. there should be three tiers of elected leadership having vision, mission and goals and
Decentralization of administrative authority; i.e. more autonomy to district departments
More specifically the purpose of changing the system was to:
1.
decentralize administrative authority to district level and below;
2.
allow public participation in decision making;
3.
facilitate monitoring of government functionary by monitoring committees;
4.
eliminate delays in decision making and disposal of business;
5.
ensure functioning of related offices in an integrated manner
6.
redress grievances of people against mal-administration
Concepts
Devolution:
Transfer of resources and authority to lowest level.
Obligatory function:
Functions that are essentially to be performed by local government.
Allocative efficiency:
Services and goods that match the need of local people.
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Table of Contents:
  1. INTRODUCTION:Institutions of State, Individualism
  2. EVOLUTION OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:Classical School, The Shovelling Experiment
  3. CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF THOUGHTS – I:Theory of Bureaucracy, Human Relation Approach
  4. CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF THOUGHTS – II:Contributors of This Approach
  5. HUMAN RELATIONS SCHOOLS:Behavioural School, System Schools
  6. POWER AND POLITICS:Conflict- as Positive and Negative, Reactions of Managers, Three Dimensional Typology
  7. HISTORY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION – I:Moghul Period, British Period
  8. HISTORY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION – II
  9. CIVIL SERVICE:What are the Functions Performed by the Government?
  10. CIVIL SERVICE REFORMS:Implementation of the Reforms, Categories of the Civil Service
  11. 1973 CONSTITUTION OF PAKISTAN:The Republic of Pakistan, Definition of the State
  12. STRUCTURE OF GOVERNMENT:Rules of Business, Conclusion
  13. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION:The Public Interest, Ambiguity, Less Efficient
  14. ORGANIZATION:Formal Organizations, Departmentalization
  15. DEPARTMENTALIZATION:Departmentalization by Enterprise Function, Departments by Product
  16. POWER AND AUTHORITY:Nature of Relationship, Delegation of Functional Authority
  17. DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY:The Art of Delegation, Coordination
  18. PLANNING – I:Four Major Aspects of Planning, Types of Plans
  19. PLANNING – II:Planning ProcessThree principles of plans
  20. PLANNING COMMISSION AND PLANNING DEVELOPMENT:Functions, Approval Authority
  21. DECISION MAKING:Theories on Decision Making, Steps in Rational Decision Making
  22. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (HRM):Importance of Human Resource, Recruitment
  23. SELECTION PROCESS AND TRAINING:Levels at Which Selection takes Place, Training and Development
  24. PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL:Formal Appraisals, Informal Appraisals
  25. SELECTION AND TRAINING AND PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS:Performance Evaluation,
  26. PUBLIC FINANCE:Background, Components of Public Finance, Dissimilarities
  27. BUDGET:Components of Public Income, Use of Taxes, Types of Taxation
  28. PUBLIC BUDGET:Incremental Budget, Annual Budget Statement, Budget Preparation
  29. NATIONAL FINANCE COMMISSION:Fiscal Federalism Defined, Multiple Criteria
  30. ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL:Types of Accountability, Internal Control, External Control
  31. AUDIT:Economy, Effectiveness, Objectives of Performance Audit, Concepts
  32. MOTIVATION:Assumptions about Motivation, Early ViewsThree Needs
  33. MOTIVATION AND LEADERSHIP:Reinforcement Theory, Leadership, The Trait Approach
  34. LEADERSHIP:Contingency Approaches, Personal Characteristics of Employees
  35. TEAM – I:Formal & Informal teams, Functions of Informal Groups, Characteristics of Teams
  36. TEAM – II:Team Cohesiveness, Four ways to Cohesiveness, Communication
  37. COMMUNICATION – I:Types of Communication, How to Improve Communication
  38. COMMUNICATION – II:Factors in Organizational Communication, Negotiating To Manage Conflicts
  39. DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION:The British Period, After Independence, The Issues
  40. DEVOLUTION PLAN – I:Country Information, Tiers or Level of Government
  41. DEVOLUTION PLAN – II:Aim of Devolution Plan, Administrative Reforms, Separation of powers
  42. POLITICAL REFORMS:District, Tehsil, Functions of Union Council, Fiscal Reforms
  43. NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT (NPM):Strategy, Beginning of Management Approach
  44. MANAGERIAL PROGRAMME AGENDA – I
  45. MANAGERIAL PROGRAMME AGENDA – II:Theoretical Bases of Management, Critique on Management