1. The Intended Model of Subnational Governance 1.1 Fundamental principles
The model of Subnational Governance intended by the SNGP, and therefore by the SNGP implementation framework, is the existing Constitutional system, with the scope for strengthening of local governance that exists within the system fully realized. The fundamental principles of this model are:
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Provinces and districts are administrative units, not political units. In the Afghan system, provinces and districts are administrative divisions created for the purpose of improving the management of the country’s affairs. They are not political units, and therefore do not have any independent legislative or revenue-raising power. The country has only one political unit- the nation itself- hence it is described as “unitary”. This fact has as its fiscal counterpart that the provinces and districts are not primary budget units- the primary budget units are the central agencies of the state. Provinces and districts have budgets only in so far as primary budget units have portions of their budget allocated to the provinces and districts.
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Government offices in provinces and districts are sub-offices of central agencies. Because of the fact that provinces are administrative units and not political units, government offices in provinces and districts are branch offices or sub-offices of central agencies. Their primary line of accountability and control is upward, to their head office in Kabul. Governors’ Offices are a special case of this as they are, from an administrative and financial perspective, sub-offices of IDLG: they have a special status, however, because the head of the office is a political appointee who is the head of the local administration, rather than a civil servant (as is the case with other local offices).
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Basic financial and administrative processes are singular in character. In the Afghan system there is a single system for budgeting and a single Treasury. All budget submissions are made by the central agencies of the state to the Ministry of Finance, and expenditures for provinces and districts must be included in those budget submissions. All cash is managed by the single Treasury, and so all agencies, whether central or provincial and district sub-offices, make payments by requesting the Treasury to process the payment on their behalf. Recruitment is also a singular, in that there is a single Civil Service Commission with a single appointments committee and a single appeals committee. While appointments do take place in the provinces and districts, this is under the delegated authority of central agencies, not under independent authority.
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Governors, municipalities and elected councils have the primary function “localizing” the central or “Unitary” system. The basic principles of SNG determine a centralized system, which has some undesirable characteristics such as keeping decision-making far from the people and decreasing accountability. Governors, local municipalities and elected councils (Provincial Councils) offset these negative characteristics. The existence of Governors allows coordinated decision-making and planning and implementation of service delivery below the national level; the existence of Provincial Councils allows extraction of accountability below the national level; the existence of Municipalities allows the entire service delivery and accountability cycle to take place within an urban setting.
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The basic approach for reform is the delegation of authority. Because of the structure described above, “direct” approaches to reform such as giving provinces their own political authority, budgets or ministries is not possible. Instead, reform can only be achieved by central agencies delegating their decision-making power (e.g. the power to request budget, execute budget, make appointment and make operational decisions) to their sub-offices. This kind of reform is within the scope of the Constitution.
It should be emphasized that these principles were not determined by IDLG- they are based on the Constitution and the administrative structure of the country. In fact, they pre-date the current Constitution and go back at least as far as the 1964 Constitution and the accompanying Basic Organizational Law.
The intended system, which based on these principles, is spelled out in sections II and III of this Annex4.
1.2 Functions of provincial-level and district-level entities -
Functions of the Provincial Governor (PG). The PG is the executive head of the Provincial Administration. The PG is mandated to use his/her authorities to achieve socio-economic development, justice and security in a way which is inclusive and participatory, and which meets specific needs of the country such as conserving the environment, addressing gender issues and reducing poppy cultivation. The means for achieving this mandate are primarily through the Governors’ role of leading inter-agency planning amongst provinces, coordinating implementation of activities by provincial line departments and holding line departments accountable for their work and the results of their work.
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Functions of the District Governor (DG). The DG is the executive head of the District Administration. The DG is mandated to use his/her authorities to achieve socio-economic development, justice and security in a way which is inclusive and participatory, and which meets specific needs of the country such as conserving the environment, addressing gender issues and reducing poppy cultivation. The means for achieving this mandate are primarily through the Governors’ role of leading inter-agency planning amongst provinces, coordinating implementation of activities by District Offices departments and holding District Offices accountable for their work and the results of their work.
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Function of Provincial Line Departments (PLD) of Ministries. The role of the PLDs is to plan and deliver services within the scope of the authorities delegated to them by their parent ministries in Kabul. Activities delegated to Provincial Line Departments are planned in cooperation with other provincial agencies, under the leadership of the PG, and implementation is overseen by both the Provincial Governor and the Provincial Council.
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Function of District Offices (DOs) of Ministries. The role of the DOs is to plan and deliver services within the scope of the authorities delegated to them by their parent ministries in Kabul. Activities delegated to District Offices are planned in cooperation with other district agencies, under the leadership of the district Governor, and implementation is overseen by both the District Governor and the District Council.
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Function of Provincial Councils (PC). The role of the PC is to represent the people and hold the Provincial Governor and the Provincial Line Departments to account. They are responsible for monitoring and evaluating service delivery, for giving local people voice, for bringing attention to issues raised in consultation with their constituents, and for promoting gender equality. The Provincial Council also provides preliminary approval of provincially-formulated plans prior to submission to Provincial Governors for final approval.
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Function of District Councils (PC). The role of the DC is to represent the people and hold the District Governor and the District Offices to account. They are responsible for monitoring and evaluating service delivery, for giving local people voice, for bringing attention to issues raised in consultation with their constituents, and for promoting gender equality. The District Council also approves the project ideas collected by the District Governor prior to their submission to the Provincial Development Committee, as part of the development of the “People’s Plan” during annual provincial planning.
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Function of the Provincial Development Committee (PDC). The PDC is the technical forum by which provincial plans are produced, reviewing the proposals of specific line departments, ensuring the incorporation of project ideas generated through the bottom-up planning process, and finally combining all elements into a single plan for the province. The PDC is also the forum for resolving coordination and implementation issues after the plan has been approved.
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Function of the Provincial Administrative Assembly (PAA). The PAA provides a forum for coordinating administrative activities of provincial level government units, such as recruitment, Public Administration Reform, procurement and financial management.
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Function of the District Administrative Assembly (DAA). The DAA provides a forum for coordinating administrative activities of district level government units.
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Function of the Municipality. Municipalities will have legally defined mandatory and optional functions. Mandatory functions may include municipal socio-economic development planning; revenue-raising; implementation of basic municipal infrastructure and social services. Optional functions may include encouraging private sector investment and corporate partnership for service delivery.
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Function of the Mayor. The functions of the Mayor will be defined under the law. These may include: being the executive head of the Municipal Administration; ensuring that basic services are delivered and that service delivery plans are implemented; ensuring that all municipal officials and organizational units discharge their duties; provide policy, guidelines and Executive Orders to ensure that the Municipality executes its functions; appointing employees of the municipal administration; coordinating with the Central government; ensuring participation of and consultation with the municipal population.
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Function of the Municipal Council. The functions of the Municipal Councils will be defined the Law. They may include: participating in planning and budgeting, approving municipal plans, monitoring service delivery, holding municipal officials accountable
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Function of the Municipal Administrative Council. The Municipal Administrative Council includes the Mayor, his/her deputy mayor and department heads. Its responsibilities include coordinating municipal activities, preparing plans and budgets, proposing by-laws and regulations, confirming administrative decisions, addressing issues in the implementation of service delivery plans and budgets and generally ensuring efficient management of the municipality.
1.3 Key subnational-level processes 1.31 Planning and implementation of service delivery at provincial and district level -
Identification of functions and budget for delegation. Central ministries identify which of their functions can and should be implemented by their provincial line departments, according to a policy for delegation of responsibilities. Those that can be implemented at a lower level are formally delegated to that lower level. The budget for the functions that are delegated to the provincial level become the total provincial budget for the country, and the budget for the functions that are delegated to the district level become the total district budget for the country.
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Application of provincial allocation formula. Each central Ministry divides the total budget for its provincial line departments according to its own formula. The formula can be constructed so that the total funds available can be divided according to up to four types of criteria: according to population size, according to the cost of delivering services in the province for that Ministry, according to the performance of the province in some dimension, and according to whether or not the province is designated as being amongst the most poor. The formula can also be constructed to allow some of the funds to be divided equally amongst the line departments.
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Announcement of provincial budget ceilings. Ministries announce the portion of their budgets that are available for planning and implementation of activities at provincial level during the annual budget cycle, so that the information can be used during provincial planning.
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Financing of provincial plan. The budget for functions delegated to provincial departments is transferred to the province so that financial implementation can take place in the province. This means in practice that the provincial departments will be authorized to spend funds for delegated functions via the Mustufiats.
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Annual provincial planning process. Each province conducts an annual planning and budgeting process. The process produces a plan for each sector, within the functional areas and using the budget that has been allocated for each sector/line department (as described above). The process is as follows:
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Development of “People’s Plan”. Starting early in the fiscal year (Hoot), a bottom-up planning process takes place. In this process, villages produce project ideas in each sector. These ideas are submitted by the Village Council (or CDC in the case that there is no Village Council) to the District Governor, who carries out basic screening of the projects, for example removing illegible projects or combining duplicate projects. These are submitted to the PDC, after the approval of the District Council if it exists. The PDC then conducts a more detailed screening, and designs and costs the projects remaining in the “people’s plan”.
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Development of “Department-Driven Plans”. Starting in Hamal each line department initiates its own planning and budgeting process in consultation with the PDC. Annual planning and budgeting should be in line with the Province’s Strategic Plan.
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Integration of plans. Once the budget ceilings for each sector in each province have been announced (between Asad and Sunbula), the PDC selects projects in the people’s plan with a value of no less than 25% of the budget for each sector, and ensure that each line department’s plan is completed using the remaining portion of the budget. This produces the completed draft provincial plan.
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Approval of plan. The provincial plan is then sent first to the Provincial Council for preliminary approval, and then to the Provincial Governor for final approval.
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Integration of provincial proposals into Central Ministry budget submissions. After approval by the Provincial Council and Governor, the plan is broken up by sector, and the provincial line department responsible for each sector submits its part of the provincial plan to its parent Ministry in Kabul, so that the parent Ministry may include the plan in its annual budget submission.
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Service delivery implementation responsibilities. Provincial line departments and district offices execute their sections of the provincial plan, i.e. those activities planned and budgeted in their sectors, and delegated to them by their parent Ministries, according to the Ministries’ policy for delegation of responsibilities. They will operate existing programmes and assets, and will implement new development projects, if they fall under functions delegated to them and the activities are planned and budgeted. In order to allow the provincial line departments (and district offices) to execute this role, necessary financial authorities, e.g. procurement authorities, will be granted.
1.32 Governor Coordination and Leadership -
Role of Governor in General Service Delivery. Governors have two roles in service delivery
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Supervision and leadership of line departments/district offices. Provincial Governors (District Governors) coordinate and supervise implementation of activities delegated to provincial line department level (district office level). They are also required to ensure that Provincial Line Departments (district offices) are meeting Service Delivery standards (as described in another part of the policy). Governors do not play an operational or day-to-day management role in the implementation of service delivery plans- this responsibility rests with the line department heads.
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Special implementation responsibilities. Provincial Governors to be given authority to implement programmes, via their Offices, in the case that there is no implementing agency with a mandate to implement programmes of that type at provincial level. The budget for these programmes is provided via IDLG’s budget. This must be approved by the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Subnational Planning and Finance.
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Role of Governor in security sector. The Provincial Governor and District Governor exercise coordination and oversight functions in the security sector, such as ensuring that ANP members follow the Police Law, ensuring rapid deployment of security forces and coordinating response to security issues; ANP functions under the guidance and leadership of the Governor, and follows priorities set by Governor, while local police chiefs retain organizational and operational independence.
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Role of Governor in justice sector. The Provincial Governor (District Governor) has a coordinating and supervisory relationship with Provincial Office of the Attorney General (District Office of the Attorney General). This relationship must not undermine its functional independence.
1.33 Provincial and District Level Accountability -
Provincial council elections. Provincial Council elections are to be held in 2009. The Constitutional term limits for Provincial Councils of 4 years is applied and so subsequent elections will be held every 4 years, i.e. in 2013,2017 and so on. A single non-transferrable vote system is used, with the province treated as a single electoral constituency. There is a schedule for the size of the council based on province size, and a minimum number of seats reserved for women.
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District council elections. District Council elections are to be held in 2010. The Constitutional term limits for Provincial Councils of 4 years is applied and so subsequent elections will be held every 4 years, i.e. in 2014,2018 and so on. A single non-transferrable vote system is used, with the district treated as a single electoral constituency. There is a schedule for the size of the council based on province size, and a minimum number of seats reserved for women.
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Role of the Provincial and District Councils. The key duties of the Provincial and District Council are
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Accountability generation. Provincial (District) Councils assess the performance of the executive agencies. This is achieved through Monitoring and Evaluation process, and through the practice of the Provincial (District) Governor appearing before the Provincial (District) Council once per month to ask questions. The Provincial (District) Council can report cases of non-performance of duties by the Provincial (District) Governor to IDLG so that it can take corrective action. The Provincial (District) Council can report poor performance by provincial line departments (district offices) to IDLG, so that it may inform the relevant central agency so that it can take corrective action.
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Participation in provincial planning. The Provincial Council provides preliminary approval of the provincial plan (as described above). In addition, the chair of the Provincial Council is also a member of the Provincial Development Committee, allowing the Council to further engage in the planning process. The District Council approves the selection of project collected from villages by the District Governor, prior to submission to the Provincial Development Committee, ideas during the development of the “People’s Plan” (as described above)
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Monitoring and evaluating service delivery. The Provincial Council is responsible for ensuring that the provincial plan is implemented. The Provincial and District Council monitor and evaluate development and service delivery, ensure that planned expenditures produce outputs, and that expenditures have the desired outcomes. The Provincial and District Council also monitors and evaluates gender equality and the extent/effectiveness of activities of line departments and district offices in pursuing it. The Monitoring and Evaluation function of the Provincial and District Council is supported by a system that generates, analyzes and distributes information on service delivery and government performance, relative to nationally-defined service delivery standards.
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Public grievances. The Provincial (District) Council supervises and ensures the effectiveness of a system by which the provincial populace can express complaints or grievances related to provincial and district government entities (district government entities), and under which these complaints and grievances will receive a timely and appropriate response.
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Outreach and participation. Provincial and District Council members are expected to consult with their constituents regularly. The Councils are also expected to create opportunities for broad participation in Governance, for example by ensuring that civil society, women and youth can participate in planning and M&E processes, and by supporting women’s empowerment.
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Other duties. Provincial and District Councils have other appropriate duties such as such as overseeing response to disaster management and eliminating practices contrary to law, human rights or Sharia, and resolving disputes when all concerned parties agree to it.
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Public information at provincial and district level. Finally, the Policy requires the central and subnational structures to support access to information of public and through wide variety of channels. This includes
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Right to information. The Right to Information Law will be enacted, so as to implements the Constitutional Right to Information. This will ensure that people have the right to information possessed by Government Offices.
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Communications capacity. Communications capacity will be built in the Office of the Provincial (District) Governor and other subnational agencies, including both technical capacity and necessary communications systems and infrastructure.
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Public information strategy and systems. Provincial Public Information Systems will be established. These will enable Provincial Governors to communicate with the public more easily and effectively and to provide people with information on policies, strategies and progress of the government. Public communications will use a wide variety of channels.
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Provincial Public Communications Committees. Advisory committees will be established to assist the Provincial Governor on the implementation of the Right to Information and the formulation and implementation of Provincial Public Communications Strategy.
1.34 Planning and implementation of municipal service delivery -
Scope of annual planning of service delivery by municipalities. An annual planning or budgeting process will take place in the municipalities. The scope of the planning will be the mandatory and optional functions of the municipalities, as defined under the law, as well as any public service responsibilities delegated to the municipalities by central ministries.
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Process for annual planning of service delivery by municipalities. Annual municipal planning process should be participatory and should allow involvement of people and civil society. Detailed technical planning will be conducted by the Municipal Administrative Council and depending on the final determination of the powers Municipal bodies under the law, the final plan will be approved by the Municipal Council. The process for approval of municipality budgets at higher levels, for example by IDLG, will be streamlined. Capital projects will have improved justifications and there will be flexibility in budget lines to allow for emergencies and urgent needs.
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Participation of private sector in municipal service delivery. Municipalities will be free to cooperate with the private sector to plan and implement service delivery, to finance service delivery through charges levied by commercial service delivery enterprises, and to use private capital for investment in municipal service delivery mechanisms.
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Coordination between central ministries and municipalities. Municipalities are free to cooperate with other government entities in order to plan and implement service delivery. Municipalities are required to coordinate the planning and implementation with the central ministries to ensure that no gaps or duplications occur in service delivery.
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Sources of finance for municipal operations, investment and service delivery. Municipalities may use the following forms of finance: The safayi (‘cleaning charge’); a real property tax ; new rates, fees, taxes and charges, provided that they are progressive and there is consultation prior to being levied; borrowing from local sources within a national regulatory framework; budget deficits, within a national regulatory framework and when there is urgent need; service fees charged by economic enterprises, provided that the level of the fees is set through a consultative involving management, the municipality and the public; budget support from the Ministry of Finance, using a formula that allocates funds according to the relative size of the population and which gives incentives for revenue raising; budget of Central Ministries transferred to municipalities to fund functions delegated to the municipalities.
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