Kazungula Town Council Chairperson Tatila Mbozi says decentralization is essential to sustainable development in the country.
Ms Mbozi says it is important for the citizens to note that the primary objective of the decentralization policy is aimed at accelerating this country’s development.
This is in order to reform the public service with the view to improve its overall efficiency, thereby enhancing its ability to attend to its core functions of supporting good democratic governance and service provision to the citizens in the country.
Ms. Mbozi said this yesterday during the commemoration of Africa Day of Decentralization and Local government week launch held at Kazungula border.
“A major part of this reform process involves empowering officials and citizens in provinces and districts with additional decision making responsibilities and resources which have been administered centrally for many years,” Ms. Mbozi said.
The council chairperson said it is for this reason that government has demonstrated commitment to this policy by increasing the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) from K1.6 million to K25.7 million as a way of having a bottom- up approach in project implementation.
The link between participation and local governance has become an important means of improving the effectiveness of services and empowering the poor to participate in the development processes that affect their lives, she added.
She said that to achieve this, government has taken various measures to accelerate the implementation of the decentralization policy such as commencing the actual transfer of certain functions from central government to the local authorities.
“ Government is also improving accountability of local governance system by affording citizens the opportunity to directly elect their mayors and council chairpersons as well as commencing the establishment of sub- district structures at ward level to facilitate the enhancement participation of citizens in local development among others, ‘explained Ms. Mbozi.
Speaking earlier, District Administrative Officer Mbeha Akabondo said he was happy to note that government is committed to bringing development closer to the people.
The commemoration was held under the theme; ‘the contribution of arts, culture and heritage to the sustainable development of African cities and territories’.
She sounds romantic… is that her office?
Wow thats Kazungula one stop border post…..at least let’s give credit to PF for a job well done
Give credit to the Japanese that funded it and the Koreans that designed and built it.
Decentralization is key but then some districts still heavily rely on funding from central government as they don’t have the capacity to raise enough revenue to completely run on their own.