Efforts being made to strengthen councils from a financial perspective: LGA
Other skill-based training programmes planned to develop competent councilors
Local Government Authority (LGA) Director Abdulla Rasheed in an appearance on Raajje TV's "Fala Surukhee" programme
Director of the Local Government Authority Abdulla Rasheed shed light on some of the authority's plans for newly elected councils in an appearance on Raajje TV's "Fala Surukhee" programme. LGA Director Abdulla Rasheed remarked that both the Public Finance Act and the Decentralization Act had been altered to empower councils, in addition to strengthening financial framework and promoting transparency and accountability. While the Decentralization Act affords many powers and authority to elected councils, Rasheed stated that it was important to have an established flow for their operations.
LGA Director Abdulla Rasheed noted that many efforts were being made to ensure operations of elected councils proceeded smoothly, in addition to training and developing competent councilors. He further specified that training related to managing finances would be afforded to counselors newly-elected to office in April.
In addition to this, Rasheed said that a mechanism was now in place to have the financial assets and expenditure of councils overseen through a system. He stated that the software would be allow for transparency and accountability, and would track the expenditure and income of local councils on a daily basis.
Further highlighting the issue, Director General of LGA Adam Shareef remarked that finances had not been tracked in atolls using systems for generations, and that no persons had been trained in such a way across outlying atolls as well. Director General Shareef remarked that the changes brought to how finances were being managed within the local governance system had been very sudden and presented obstacles to counselors.
Shareef added that councils had not previously organized and maintained financial statements or generated audit reports as ministries did. With the sudden change in policey, Shareef noted that councils did not include officials trained well enough in financial management to maintain such a system.
However, LGA Director General Adam Shareef expressed hopes that the issue would be resolved soon in the coming months as councilors are trained and familiarized with the new financial operations framework to be implemented in councils.
