04 Dec 2024

Government through the Ministry of Local Government and Traditional Affairs has developed a Draft National Decentralisation Policy which seeks to transition local authorities from the hybrid deconcentrated local governance system to a fully devolved system with enhanced service delivery.

This was said by the portfolio minister, Mr Ketlhalefile Motshegwa when responding to a question by Member of Parliament for Bobirwa, Mr Taolo Lucas who sought to know how government intended to transform and reform district councils to ensure that they had relative autonomy and were able to generate income for self-sustenance.

Minister Motshegwa explained that the draft policy, which  was yet to be presented before the relevant structures for consideration, was underpinned by the goal of promoting equitable and sustainable development, and enhancing citizens’ participation by transferring decision-making powers and resources to local governments.

Also, the minister said, the policy would empower citizens to actively participate in the planning, financing, implementation and evaluation of all local development and service delivery activities while holding their leaders accountable.

Minister Motshegwa further said that the policy recognised that local authorities faced hindrances in generating self-sustaining income, largely because of ineffective and inefficient fiscal and public financial management regime.

“Some of the elements of the challenge that emerge include; generally low-yielding nature of revenue sources assigned to the local level and the dependence on the intergovernmental fiscal transfers (revenue support grant), which contributes close to 90 per cent of local funding,” said Mr Motshegwa.

Minister Motshegwa explained that to address the aforementioned challenges and empower local authorities to generate income for self-sustenance, a Draft Fiscal Decentralisation Strategy was developed subsequent to the Draft National Decentralisation Policy.

“The overarching policy objective of the Draft Fiscal Decentralisation Strategy is to support mobilisation, predictable flow and efficient, equitable and cost-effective use of resources by decentralising national institutions and line ministries, local authorities and other institutions at national and local levels in performing the assigned functions,” he cleared.

The fiscal decentralisation, according to the minister, is anchored on the pillars as, assignment of expenditure responsibilities, allocating revenue sources, designing intergovernmental transfers and structuring sub-national borrowing or debt. Ends