16 June 2010 - In Takht-i-Safar park, where the former governor of Herat province Ismail Khan built a monument to mark his fight against the communist regime, the Afghan Government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have started a new campaign against inefficiency and confusion within the municipalities of western Afghanistan and beyond.

“We are starting from what we would call the ‘ancient reality’ of municipalities,” explains Saboor Kamran, municipal specialist for UNDP’s Afghanistan Sub-National Governance Programme. And the picture is grim: Paperwork, lack of cooperation and corruption are commonly used terms to depict municipalities in Afghanistan.

“Too often, the staff is not aware of the municipality’s own regulations,” adds the specialist.

To change these practices, the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG) – the Afghan ministry in charge of provincial, district and municipal government – has teamed up with UNDP and launched a reform plan. Staff from five provincial municipalities – Herat, Badghis, Ghor, Farah and Uruzgan – and four district municipalities (Shindand, Zinda Jan, Guzara and Ghoryan) attended the four-day workshop last week.

Shah Lala Farahi, IDLG revenue officer, came from Kabul to supervise the training in Herat. He shares the same views as his co-trainer: “Before this programme, municipalities were providing services and following a very old system. We teach new ideas. We tell the staff how to provide urban facilities for urban citizens.”

In order to improve public services such as road and drainage construction or power delivery, the trainers recommend involving the private sector and other departments of ministries at the provincial level. They also advocate consulting with the city and provincial shuras (councils) or youth organizations.

Mr Farahi is adamant that “only after they accept a project do we start initiating it.”

The trainers then focus on the core issue of finance.

Mr Kamraan starts from the very beginning: “We are telling the municipal staff that their salary comes from the people and not from a government fund. As such, they should improve their revenues through tax collection.”

To this end, a tax-mapping process will be established, which will be approved by a commission and taxes will be paid directly at the bank; all measures are intended to limit corruption.

Once the process is implemented, municipalities will be expected to plan their revenues and expenditures for the coming five years.

Meanwhile, the Civil Service Commission has agreed to pay additional salary for the staff for one year, until the reform is completed. Currently, salaries vary between 5,000 and 10,000 Afghanis approximately. They are expected to increase to 5,200 and up to 62,000 Afs.

The mayor of Farah describes some of the challenges he faces in his administration. He says that “Farah has grown from a small city to a large one, with 120,000 residents in and around the town. I need more staff and more training to improve their capacity.”

Municipal employees, which were previously recruited at the whim of the mayor, will have to take examinations and present their degrees once the reform is passed.

Looking towards the future, organizers also plan to establish school-level municipalities. Elections in classrooms will see a mayor elected and his deputies and revenue officers will work to improve the school environment and its surroundings – another approach to prepare the next generation while influencing the parents.

By Fraidoon Poya and Henri Burgard, UNAMA