Picture Courtesy: HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Bhutan’s Facebook Page
To effectively guide the Local Governments (LG) and their Administrations in conducting LG sessions, a protocol for LG proceedings was developed. It is expected to provide better clarity and guidance at each level of LG session including follow up on LG’s decisions.
While there have been many positive developments in LG, studies have also identified gaps in their functioning. Today, a report on the LG protocol has found out that there were challenges in receiving timely and appropriate responses from the government agencies. It, therefore, caused delays in decisions which LGs expressed as a serious concern which undermines the sanctity and purpose of LGs.
“Local governments have been saying that their decisions were not properly given attention to, but part of the problem also lied with them because when they put up their issues, which were not very clear actually made central government agencies or any organisation not very responsive. So this time, we will be stating the problem very clearly. Then I guess that is half the solution,” said Melam Zangpo, the Chief Programme Officer at the Department of Local Governance.
Titled “Protocol for local government proceeding,” the document expects to serve as a tool for members and officials of the LGs in their decision-making process. It highlights good practices to ensure appropriate governance and includes processes and guidance on issues such as attendance, participation, decision-making and implementation.
“We have the LG Act and LG Rules. But these two documents don’t detail out things very clearly because some are processes which don’t need to be really detailed out. So these protocols detail out the steps which LGs will have to follow. Ideally, this would help them arrive at better decisions, follow better practices and overall it is to ensure good governance. So there are several steps being outlined. So this will guide them for very effective local governance processes,” he added.
The protocol will be piloted in all districts, gewogs and thromdes until the end of their current terms. The actual implementation will be focused on the third Local Government based on the lessons learned during the pilot phases.
Samten Dolkar
