Funds disbursement delay to regional govts hampers service delivery in Africa
The panel of Mayors from various cities in Africa, Ministers of Local Authorities and development partners during the Tripartite Dialogue roundtable between Ministers, Mayors and Development Partners-Story and Photo By Dickson Odhiambo
May 21, 2022
Funds disbursement
delay to regional govts hampers service delivery in Africa
THE delay in disbursing funds promptly to regional
governments hampers delivering services at the grass root level in various
parts of Africa.
This has emerged on the final day of the Ninth Edition of
the Africities Summit 2022 being held in Kisumu Kenya during the Tripartite
Dialogue Roundtable between Ministers of Local Authorities/Devolution, Mayors
of Cities in Africa and the Development partners.
The Mayors and the Ministers for Local
Authorities/Devolution across Africa have suggested that there should be a
timely disbursement of the funds to the regional Government.
They say the National Treasury from various National
Governments in Africa should release the funding during the first week of the
first quarter of a given Financial Year.
The issue of Mistrust between the two levels of the
Governments namely the national and the regional governments seems to be one of
the issues that causes the delay in disbursing the funding to the regional
governments.
The Mayors of the various cities have put to task the
Ministers of the local Authorities to explain why they must always be delays in
the disbursement of funds.
The issue of
duplication of roles between the two levels of Governments in African continent
has also emerged strongly, the delegates in attendance suggested that there
should be clear and distinctive roles by the two level governments where none
duplicate the role of the other while implementing the projects.
Municipalities within rural areas have been advised not to
always look upon the National Governments to give them funding but should have
an alternative way of sourcing for their funding.
The issue of Laws like that of Urban and Cities Act in some
countries in Africa has also been an impediment for the development partners to
reach out directly to Municipalities to give direct funding to such.
In Niger, it has emerged that the system of devolution is
irreversible since the public fully advocated for it and the National
Government fully decentralized the functions meant for the devolved units in
the country.
The Development
partners have suggested that there is need to give rural municipalities a
chance of developing just like the municipalities
in town and cities across Africa.
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