A Future Jordan - نحن الأردن

Plan delineates regions, sets representation - By Francesa Swalha on the Decentralisation plan for Jordna

Plan delineates regions, sets representation
By Francesca Sawalha
04/12/2005
The Jordan Times

AMMAN — A Royal committee is proposing to divide the Kingdom into three development regions, each with an elected council, to jump-start decentralisation, enhance public participation in decision-making and ensure more efficiency in local government. The proposal, submitted to His Majesty King Abdullah 10 days ago, also conceives of a return to fully elected municipal councils, reversing a 2003 decision granting the Council of Ministers the right to appoint the mayor and half the members of each council.

Each named region is to include four existing governorates: The northern Yarmouk region will include the governorates of Irbid, Ajloun, Mafraq and Jerash, and have the city of Irbid as its capital; the central Raghadan region will include the Amman, Balqa, Zarqa and Madaba governorates — but exclude the Greater Amman Municipality — and have its capital in Salt; the southern Muta region will comprise the governorates of Karak, Maan, Tafileh and the Aqaba Special Economic Zone (ASEZ), with Karak as capital. This last region is also slated to comprise a "Petra region" with a special statute, modelled on the ASEZ.

The proposal suggests to exclude the Greater Amman Municipality and its two million inhabitants from the long awaited reform because "being the capital city, Amman is shared by all Jordanians," Royal committee member Maha Khatib told The Jordan Times. "Plus, Amman is [home to] the central government and it is quite well developed in terms of services and infrastructure. We need to drive development efforts towards the other regions," Khatib explained.

In a televised address to the nation in January, King Abdullah announced an administrative reform for the creation of "development areas, or regions," each with a "directly elected council to work hand-in-hand with elected municipal councils to set development priorities and draw up plans and programmes." The King emphasised that the ultimate goal of the reform was to reverse the top-to-bottom approach typical of liberalisation efforts so far: "Political development should start at the grassroots level, then move up to decision-making centres, and not vice-versa."

He also listed the functions of the proposed regional councils: "Affairs related to public facilities, investment priorities, capital expenditures and services, and oversee the performance of official bodies in all areas."

The committee appointed by the King a few days after his address included three former PMs (Fayez Tarawneh, Abdur-Ra'uf S. Rawabdeh and Zeid Rifai), seven former ministers (Aqel Biltaji, Marwan Hmoud, Awad Khleifat, Rajai Dajani, Nayef Qadi, Hisham Tal and Abdul Hadi Majali), MP Mamdouh Abbadi and Khatib, who is director general of the Jordan River Foundation.

The proposal, presented to the King on November 23, definitely dispels rumours of a fourth, central region supposedly intended to pave the way for a Jordanian role in the West Bank — rumours already denied by top officials over the past several months. The Royal committee appears to have put particular emphasis on the issue of representation and participation, detailing formulae for the elections of both municipal and regional councils. Municipal councils would be elected under the one-person, one-vote system. Each municipality will elect a minimum of seven and a maximum of 30 council members, ideally with one representative per 10,000 inhabitants. In addition to elected mayors, who will play a purely political role, the proposal foresees each municipal council having an appointed CEO to manage day-to-day business. "One cannot expect an appointed mayor to have the necessary expertise in terms of management, finance, or engineering to run day-to-day business," Khatib explained.

As for regional councils, they are expected to comprise 10 elected representatives for each governorate. Each governorate will comprise 10 voting districts, each electing one representative under the one-person, one-vote system. Each regional council is envisaged to elect its head, deputy head and two assistants. An appointed commissioner, with ministerial rank, would liaise between the regional councils and central government.

The Royal committee suggests that regional councils be in charge of "defining the developmental identity of each region," reviewing and approving socio-economic plans and supervising regional projects. National development projects would remain in the portfolio of the central government, but regional councils would be asked to step in to coordinate some of the efforts and ensure implementation of certain components.

Budgetary and taxation issues have been cited by experts over the past months as critical factors in the success of the regional administrative reform. Analysts have been arguing whether the proposed regions should be given substantial taxation responsibilities, and be allowed to use tax revenues for capital and development expenditures. Though seemingly fair, such a system would condemn poor regions to remain poor, or become even poorer, in a country where 60 per cent of the GDP is generated in the Greater Amman area. According to Khatib, the Royal committee solved the problem by referring to existing legislation, under which only the central government can exercise taxation functions. Each region would therefore be assigned a budget from the central state budget, subjected as all other parts of the state budget to Parliament's endorsement.

posted by Ashraf Zeitoon @ 2:24 AM