Half a year after the formation of local governments, no evaluation of the governors’ work... “overl

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[size=52]Half a year after the formation of local governments, no evaluation of the governors’ work... “overlooking” poor services[/size]

[size=45]Although about half a year has passed since the formation of most local governments, the service file in the governorates is still facing major criticism, in light of the lack of a supervisory role for the House of Representatives and the complete absence of an evaluation of the work of governors, and the limitation of reconstruction cases to federal ministries.
Member of the Parliamentary Services Committee, Mahma Khalil, says, “The committee concerned with evaluating the performance of governors is the Services and Reconstruction Committee according to the constitution, and it is the one responsible for holding accountable the defaulting governors who failed to implement their programs and misused public money.”
Khalil adds, “The current Services Committee was not at the level of the real committee and did not perform its supervisory role in holding governors accountable and did not demand any programs from them, and no governor was invited despite the passage of sufficient time for evaluation,” noting that “this committee can invite defaulting governors to parliament and withdraw confidence from some of them after questioning them.”
He added that “the provincial councils can also, by law, monitor the work of the governors and question them, and they have this authority, but they have not done so yet,” noting that “the services in the provinces are still very poor, and the local governments have failed to deliver the message of the government program proposed by the Prime Minister by naming his cabinet as the government of services.”
Al-Sudani demands “holding accountable the negligent governors who caused the loss of the opportunity to improve the service reality of the provinces.”
The central and southern provinces are witnessing a poor service reality, as last June, especially in the provinces of Dhi Qar and Muthanna, witnessed demonstrations protesting poor services and the lack of job opportunities. The
parliamentary Services and Reconstruction Committee confirmed earlier this month that there is coordination with local governments in all provinces with the aim of improving the service reality, noting that coordination is ongoing between representatives, members of provincial councils and governors, all with the aim of providing the best services and trying to overcome obstacles facing any government effort.
For his part, member of the Parliamentary Services and Reconstruction Committee, Baqir al-Saadi, confirms that “there has been no evaluation of the governors so far. With the exception of the governors of Kirkuk and Diyala who recently assumed their positions, the rest of the governors have been in their positions for less than a year.”
Al-Saadi adds that “the current government, as we see, is better than its predecessors in providing services to the citizen. Now there is work on the ground in most of the governorates, but it is not enough. The citizen has the right to feel that there are greater services.” He
points out that “compared to the past, the situation is better, especially in terms of infrastructure, roads and bridges, but financial allocations may have been delayed in some governorates, causing some procrastination.”
Regarding the evaluation of the governors, he notes that “some governors are affiliated with political blocs that are responsible for evaluating them. There is also the possibility of dismissing negligent governors through the follow-up of the Services Committee in the House of Representatives.”
Another member of the Services Committee, Abbas Al-Jubouri, stressed that conducting professional and technical evaluations of the work and performance of managers in service positions and others in local governments is necessary. While he stressed making changes according to those evaluations, he stressed the need for there to be periodic changes in order for there to be development in the work.
In addition, crisis management expert Ali Jabbar believes that “the performance of executive institutions still constitutes a major burden on the service, development and economic construction in the Iraqi state. The parties insist that the selection of figures for service positions be a political quota without taking into account previous experiences, the loss of large sums of money and the miserable situation of the governorates, especially the southern governorates.”
Jabbar adds that “some international reports place Iraq in very backward areas in terms of service due to poor performance, waste of allocations and loss of budgets,” noting that “the figures who hold these positions are not specialized in senior management or project management that the governorates need, so it is natural that there will be a deterioration and decline in performance and this is reflected in the management of projects and services.”
Regarding monitoring the performance of governors, he points out that “there is a chain that monitors performance starting with the Prime Minister’s Office, passing through the service ministries that monitor projects, as well as the governorate councils, which in turn have become another burden added to the poor performance of the governors, because they have become a spoil shared by the parties.”
He points out that “Iraq is now standing on a large pile of poor services and corruption rates are still high despite the presence of some features such as paving streets and building bridges, but they cannot be considered strategic projects that improve reality.”
He concludes that “the problem continues as long as the appointment and change of governors is a political decision, and the political forces have not benefited from previous experiences in changing the approach and style of selection, causing the governorates to lose their money. As for the issue of evaluation, Iraq does not have a clear and fixed strategy to evaluate performance in a professional manner, so the problem is complex and cannot result in positive service construction.”[/size]
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