We’ll we’re back from a week and a half on the road doing financial management training for local authorities. We spent one week in the South (two training sessions) and a half-week in Central Province (one session). For those who want more information on the program I am working with I thought I’d give a little background.

In 2004 USAID awarded a contract to the Asia Foundation and ICMA as partners in a program called Transparent Accountable Local Governance. This program was designed to help strengthen and build the capacity of local authorities as a way of demonstrating that democracy could work and help encourage more reliance on government generally as a prelude to peace between the rebel Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government. Only 15 local authorities were included in this program. Within a week of when the contract was awarded, the tsunami struck and USAID responded by increasing funding so that the number of local authorities could be expanded to 33. Special emphasis was focused on tsunami-affected communities in the east and south.

The program has several key elements. The first is strengthening and building the capacity of local authorities. This is where ICMA and I fit into the program. Our job is to do an assessment of each local authority, and then design training programs in financial management and service delivery to help improve the level of service to the public. So far we have conducted computer training and supplied each local authority with two PCs. We’ve conducted budget training to about half of our local authorities, and the post tsunami group were selected too late for the first round of training. We’re just finished half of the local authorities doing financial management training. We’re also helping to build or strengthen associations of local officials.

Other parts of the program that are being managed by the Asia foundation are public participation training, and citizen involvement; building political will to make changes to the system of local governance; and finally strengthening the rule of law as a way to minimize the political impacts on local governance.

It’s a tall order for a two-year program that was 6 months into the time line when I came on board. As context for all of this you need to understand that nothing in Sri Lanka works. The transportation system doesn’t work, the tax system doesn’t work, the political system doesn’t work, and local authorities are at the bottom of the food chain as national policies control the structure and role of local authorities. However the national government has devolved authority for local governance to the Provinces. These quasi states have vastly different ways of managing local authorities. The Provincial Commissioner of Local Government is a politically appointed person who has unilateral control over local authorities. Each local authority has an approved “cadre” that makes up somewhere around 50% to 70% of the local authority employees. However these are Provincial employees assigned to the local authority and the local authority does not have the authority to manage these employees, discipline these employees, or even ensure that they come to work. In fact, many do not. If one of these positions becomes vacant, the local authority must ask for permission to have it refilled. Sometimes this happens, sometimes it doesn’t. It can take up to 2 years to get a decision. People in these positions are part of the “government service” and good ones get transferred to other ministries or positions at the will of the Province. The Local Authorities have the ability to fill casual labor positions if they use their own money…. which in most cases isn’t much. However in some Provinces, even these require approval of the CLG (Commissioner of Local Government). Much of the revenues of local government go through the Province. And guess what, the Provinces are not good about passing the money on. In some cases it takes up to two years for this to happen. If the two-year mark is passed, the Local Authority looses the title to the money and it becomes the property of the Province.

So where is the political accountability? Well the system is designed to not have any. All levels of government (National, Provincial, and Local) use proportional representation. So voters vote for the Party, not the individual. The party then selects the people from the party that will fill the number of slots that the party received in the election. So the Party, not the people, selects the Mayor or Chair of the Local Authority. The political situation is complicated by a practice that seems to happen here in Sri Lanka. With high dissatisfaction in government, people tend to swing at each election between the two major parties. So at one election one party will win and the next the other will win. But unfortunately local and national/Provincial elections are not held at the same time. So, Local Authorities tend to have one ruling party while the Province and National government tend to have the opposite party in power. So, Local Authorities tend to not have much impact on the political system.

But beyond the political system things just don’t work well here. In our trainings, we invited each participating local authority to send 5 people from the finance department. Some agencies sent 6 while others sent 7. One said they’d send people but sent none. One agency sent some people day one and different people day two. Apparently they view these training opportunities as an employee benefit and want to spread it around.

We had a local vendor install new two new computers at each Local Authority. We spent hours going over with them how they were to be set up. It was all documented. However, as we checked local authorities, guess what…. They were not set up correctly. When we called the vendor he agreed to go back and correct it. Did it get corrected after that? Not on your life. The things we pointed out were correct on one computer…. but not the other. So the vendor now has to come back a third time. Who knows what will be left undone this next time.

On our way back from Nuwara Eliya in Central Province we encountered considerable traffic as a result of an accident. Because roads are so narrow and alternate routes unavailable, it took us two hours longer than expected to get home. It was a good thing we didn’t have plans.

It seems that when things don’t work, you try to get them fixed correctly; so you do it again or have it done re-done. But it’s still not the way you want so you try a third time. Wyhen this doesn’t work, you kind of give up and then shrug and try to work around it. But when you then move on to something else yo find that this piece won’t fit with the first because it wasn’t done they way you had intended. And the saga continues.

People in the know say this is typical of work in developing countries. I’m finding it quite frustrating… but I continually work on self-talk about this is a normal part of adjustment to a new system… and that I can’t expect things to be like the US here in Sri Lanka. When I finish with that I fall back to the serenity prayer. About changing the things I can, accepting the things I can’t change and knowing the difference. I sure hope I know the difference!!!!!