As part of our work with all provinces to prepare legal tools that will allow for the transfer of legal functions from the ministries to the provinces, GSP/Taqadum continued to assist the Governor’s Offices and Directorates by:
GSP/Taqadum Legal Specialists continued their discussions from the previous quarter with the Governor’s Offices on managing legal functions slated for transfer to the provinces that are currently authorized by the Ministries. The following are the seven GSP/Taqadum-proposed legal mechanisms that have been presented to date to the provinces, along with their status regarding review and adoption:
A subsequent step to the implementation of Article 45 of Law No 21, as amended, stipulates the Governor as the highest provincial executive official mandated with executive and oversight authorities to oversee implementation of the local policy. This requires that roles, responsibilities, and authorities be clearly identified and distributed among all local government components – Governor, Director General, and Director, and not centered on the Governor's Office only, which in and of itself, sets the implementation of administrative decentralization on the road to failure.
In support of Article 45 and administrative decentralization, GSP/Taqadum, in cooperation with the provincial Directorates of Health, Education, and Municipalities and Public Works, developed a Roles, Responsibilities, and Authorities Distribution Model (RRAD Model) that regulates the financial, administrative, legal, and technical functions once their authorities are transferred from the ministerial to the local level. Developed to enable Governors to fully exercise their planning, administrative, supervisory, and inspection roles vis-à-vis the provincial directorates, the RRAD Model ensures Governors perform their assigned oversight functions and at the same time empower and hold the professional directors accountable for providing services. This, in turn, will lead to better levels of service delivery to Iraq’s citizens.
In addition, the RRAD Model empowers Governors to retain the authority to make important decisions, among them:
The GSP/Taqadum-developed RRAD Model also delineates ministerial authorities and responsibilities to provincial executive directors (or Directors of Directorates). This distribution enables Directors to perform their daily work, the goal of which is, ultimately, to deliver the best possible level and number of services to citizens. The following criteria was followed when assigning authorities to provincial directorate directors:
Education, Water, Sewer, and Municipality
Education, Health, and Municipalities
Education, Health, and Municipality
Education, Health, and all six Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works provincial directorates
Health, Education, and all six Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works provincial directorates
Health and Education
Health and Municipalities
Health, Education, and all six Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works provincial directorates
Health, Education, and all six Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works provincial directorates
Health, Education, and all six Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works provincial directorates
Replicating GSP/Taqadum’s work with the initially targeted Ministries of Education, Health, and Municipalities and Public Works, regarding the project’s assisting the GO’s and targeted directorates to define the distribution of roles, responsibilities, and working relationships after the functions transfer Ministries to provinces, GSP/Taqadum continued meeting with the provinces providing technical assistance and discussing the framework of authority delegation from Governors to Directors. To date, Kirkuk has officially delegated authorities (joining the nine provinces of Baghdad, Basrah, Dhi Qar, Diyala, Diwaniyah, Karbala, Maysan, Najaf, and Wasit that adopted the proposed draft legislation last quarter).
GSP/Taqadum selected four pilot provinces (Basrah, Diyala, Karbala, and Kirkuk) to work with sub-committees in the transferred directorates to prepare an initial draft model outlining the distribution of roles, responsibilities, and authorities between the GOs and the 10 newly transferred directorates from the new four ministries.