Introduction
Key Issues
Recommendations
Introduction
With the Royal Government setting a date for commune elections (3 February 2002), local governance and commune administration reforms will soon become a reality. The Law on Administration of Communes, which was signed into law in March 2001, potentially provides a basis for the people of Cambodia to play a greater part than ever before in the processes of public decision-making that affect their lives.
Underpinning the Law on Administration of Communes is a government commitment to decentralization, which represents a sharp departure from the practices of the past. Cambodia's communes, with state-appointed commune chiefs, have only ever been associated with controlling, regulating and recording the affairs of the commune. With decentralization, all of this is meant to change. State-appointed Commune Chiefs will be replaced with popularly elected Commune Councils, with between 5 and 11 councilors. While the Communes will continue to have an important role as agents of the central government, their primary focus will become the development of the commune.
NGOs have for a long time been assisting development efforts and capacity building in villages and communes throughout Cambodia, and regard the commune administration reforms as a fine opportunity for government and NGOs to work together towards a common goal-improving the livelihoods of the poor in Cambodia. We are encouraged by recent government initiatives to consult with NGOs on the details of local governance reforms, and appreciate the efforts of key government representatives to seek NGO feedback and comments on proposed reform measures. However, more could be done in this area. In order to achieve consensus building on these key reform measures, we encourage donors to facilitate further opportunities for government to consult more with all of the significant actors in the development sector, particularly those representing the interests of the rural poor.
Key Issues
NGOs have come together on several occasions over the last year to discuss decentralization and commune administration reforms, and their implications for local development. Some of the concerns raised during these meetings have subsequently been allayed or addressed by the government in its significant and commendable progress with local governance reforms. However, we believe that many challenges remain and these are summarized below:
Local Participation in Development
- The decentralization experience in other countries has demonstrated that decentralization will only succeed if measures are adopted to actively encourage civil society to participate meaningfully in public decision-making. With little tradition of popular participation in local governance, the challenge in Cambodia will be to establish effective participatory mechanisms that provide for local voices to be heard in development planning and issues of local governance.
- The Commune Administration Law does not establish a strong link between communes and the villages (and villagers) within them. While provisions will be established for the election of village chiefs, the law provides no avenue through which villagers are provided with direct representation on their commune council.
- Ensuring the active participation of the poorest members of the community in matters of local governance must constitute an important priority. These are the people who are most in need of the services and resources that commune councils are expected to provide but they are also the least able to petition their leaders, least equipped to deal with authority figures and. are likely to have the least in common with commune councilors and officials.
Financial Support for Decentralization
- Experience from every country where decentralization has been tried points to the fact that the commune councils will struggle to establish legitimacy if they are insufficiently funded. Providing adequate funding to more than 1600 commune councils presents a massive challenge and raises strong concerns on probity.
Accountability and Transparency
- Decentralization will only address important issues of official corruption and financial mismanagement if commune councils are transparent, and accountable to the people who elected them. Downward accountability for local administration is a new phenomenon in Cambodia, with officials traditionally only accountable upwards to higher levels of government. The proportional representation voting system, and the participation of political parties in commune administration, will do little to promote the downwards-accountability of commune councillors. Accountability and transparency might also be compromised if the unallocated and centrally appointed commune clerks are afforded too much power, or if commune officials use their positions, or the resources of the commune council, for personal benefit. These problems could be significant if systems for resource allocation and distribution are not paid careful attention.
Capacity
- A final major challenge in respect of local governance reforms will be building the capacity of over 1600 newly elected commune councils. Providing the resources and the training to ensure that commune councils can perform their duties efficiently and effectively will require significant and ongoing support from the international donor community. If the capacity building needs of commune administration are not handled in a coordinated manner, and in a way that harnesses the skills and abilities of all stakeholders, the whole decentralization process will come under threat.
- NGOs and CS have a different perspective and different skills to bring to the realm of capacity building and they must be allowed and supported to participate fully in this endeavor alongside government. Additionally, government can realistically meet only a small proportion of the need, even with significant international assistance.
Recommendations
In order to address these challenges, we urge the Royal Government of Cambodia and donors to give due consideration to the following recommendations:
Local Participation in Development
- Efforts should be made to consult widely with civil society organisations and other stakeholders in formulating the regulations governing the powers and functions of commune councils. A highly constructive move on the part of the government would be to allow NGOs to be represented on the National Committee to Support the Communes
(NCSC).
- The regulations should take into consideration and make specific references to the poor. A "Charter for the Poor" is one idea that may encourage more equitable distribution of the benefits of decentralization.
- Regulations should detail the manner, extent and measures by which commune councils should encourage public participation. Public notification of meeting agendas and rotation of commune council meetings between villages would assist in this process.
- The internal rules and bylaws of commune councils should contain explicit references to citizen observation at council meetings, publication of proceedings, reports and budgets and citizen accessibility to council records.
Financial Support for Decentralization
- The Cambodian government must be willing to back its commitment to decentralization with the annual allocation of a significant portion of the national budget to recurrent commune council expenditures, and to the Commune Revenue Fund.
- Donors must be prepared to commit and guarantee support to the Commune Revenue Fund in addition to any support to other government programs such as
Seila.
- Regulations should license only progressive forms of local taxation that take into account the people's ability to pay and prosper under the tax regime.
Accountability and Transparency
- Specific measures should be established through which the electorate may petition commune councils, and the required actions by the commune councils after receiving a petition should be spelled out.
- Regulations should spell out very clearly under what circumstances a commune council should be permitted to hold a secret meeting.
- All financial transfers to the councils through the Commune Revenue Fund, international agencies and local taxation should be public knowledge within the commune.
- The employment of the commune clerk as an employee of the commune council, and not the Ministry of Interior, should be formally adopted as a medium-term (5-10 years) policy goal of the government.
Capacity
- Donors must be prepared to support the capacity building needs which will accompany the election of more than 10,000 commune councilors.
- Authority and responsibility will need to be handed over progressively to councils in recognition of developing competence and accountability that can be measured through acceptable benchmarks.
- Programmes should be set in place for ongoing support to commune council capacity building, as needs will reoccur after each commune election.
For further information on issues raised in this paper contact:
The Commune Council Support Project, Tel: 023 216 369, Email: ccsp@bigpond.com.kh |
|
|