12 June 2010
BEIRUT: The country’s administrative divisions of qada and governorate are old-fashioned and should be revised, according to Metn MP Sami Gemayel.
Gemayel was joined on Friday by senior officials from the Phalange Party for a conference on decentralization at the group’s headquarters in Saifi.
Lebanon is divided into governorates, headed by a governor, and each governorate, with the exception of Beirut, is further divided into qadas, headed by an official called a qaimaqam.
“We’re still stuck with these old-style terms,” Gemayel said, “and the time has come to go beyond these terms, especially qaimaqam and governor.”
Gemayel urged the authorities to get serious about the long-advocated goal of administrative decentralization, and resolving the impasse between democracy based on “consensus” and that based on a clearly-defined government majority and opposition. “We need to respect participation and pluralism, so that none of the cultural groups in Lebanon feels that it’s outside the government, or outside true participation in managing the affairs of state,” he said.
He also cited the need to have “true democracy, in addition to oversight and accountability, and the existence of a majority and a minority, so that the Lebanese people can hold officials accountable, at all stages.”
“This is what we haven’t been able to implement, or even balance with the principle of participation by all groups … this is what we’re experiencing today, with the formation of the government. The current government secures participation by all groups, but with an absence of accountability and oversight.”
Gemayel said the solution lay in enhancing the role of “regional” units, which he said didn’t imply a federal system.
The MP said “cultural groups,” apparently referring to religious and sectarian groups, should be allowed to play a more active role at the level of local government. This should take place by boosting the status of municipalities, which are hamstrung by laws that allow the central government a huge say in how public revenues are spent, even though they’re allocated for local government.
Seventy-five percent of the Independent Municipal Fund goes to non-strictly municipal needs, the MP said, falling under the purview of the “Council for Development and Reconstruction, or other institutions responsible for development, which is the municipality’s.”
Gemayel slammed the practice of prior oversight, citing the example of a town in the Bekaa Valley that faced a build-up of garbage when sanitation trucks broke down and failed to perform collection duties.
After the locals complained, he said, “it took two years to resolve – it required over 75 signatures, of more than 30 state employees, from roadworthiness [mecanique] bureaucrats to public works bureaucrats, the head of a financial committee, the head of the tenders committee, the mayor, etc...”
Gemayel said the central government’s Auditing Department should have branch offices throughout the country. He advocated a system of decentralization that would see the current qaimaqam post become an elected post, with an elected body of 16 officials handling public affairs at the qada level.
Echoing Gemayel’s call for more effective local government was Western Bekaa- MP Robert Ghanem, who said the qada level of government should be revamped by establishing qada-level councils. – The Daily Star
Copyright The Daily Star 2010.
