Compare the Local Government System of Uganda and France

There is a growing recognition around the world today of the role that local governments play in promoting good governance, effective service delivery and in achieving national development goals such as the Millennium Development Goals (Localizing the MDGs, 2010). This is because a local government is closer to the people and has the potential to effectively mobilize communities and galvanize them to participate in public affairs and own development. Local governments also offer the best opportunity for the timely and responsive delivery of local public services (Local Governments in Eastern Africa, 2012). In order to fully understand the factors responsible for a particular local government system to be viable for national development, this paper seeks to relate the local government system of Uganda and France in a detailed analysis then from the comparison, a more viable system for national development will be chosen. A conclusion will be drawn from the discussion.

Local government is a form of public administration which in a majority of contexts, exists as the lowest tier of administration within a given state and local governments act within the powers delegated to them by legislation or directives of the higher level of government (Brian, 1953). National development is the ability of a country or countries to improve the social welfare of the people for example the provision of social amenities like good quality education (United Nations Development Program, 2005).

With respect to Uganda, apart from parliament and other national institutions, representative democracy is practised in local governments and the form of governance at local level is a decentralisation type as described in its structural composition. In terms of structure, the local government system in Uganda is made up of the district which is the highest tier and it's governed by a District Council (DC) which is in turn presided over by a full time Executive Committee, consisting of the district chairperson elected as a political head by adult suffrage (Local Governments in Eastern Africa, 2012). Then a speaker and a deputy speaker elected from among the members of the District Council as well as the vice chairperson and secretaries which are nominated by the chair and approved by the council (ibid). The District Council as the supreme organ in the local government has powers to enact district laws as long as they are not inconsistent with the constitution or any other law made by the national legislature. This power is exercised by the passing of local bills into ordinances.

The council that approves the elected speaker and his or her deputy is also responsible for the preparation of comprehensive plans that incorporate of the lower local governments through the technical planning committee constituted by heads of departments and the Chief Administrative Officer (Local Governments in Eastern Africa, 2012). The planning function is the nerve centre of decentralised local governance and in terms of policy, there is a good framework for bottom up identification of priorities and incorporating them in the development plans from village to District level. Village and Parish Councils (that is all adults of 18 years and above residing in the village or parish) are convened in what is termed as a budget conference and priorities are identified and sent through to the Sub-County (Localizing the MDGs, 2010).

Councils at Sub-county level are constituted by the chairperson, elected as so by universal suffrage and councillors elected according to their constituencies (ibid). The administrative units, namely, the County, Parish and Village levels are governed by committees and are mainly to assist in implementation of district programmes, mobilisation, and communication and then generally assist in maintenance of law and order. The Sub-county council is responsible for further prioritisation so as to enable the sub-county technical committee to come up with a plan. The District budget Conference hence takes place finally to aggregate priorities from all sub-counties. As described by Political Pluralism, Democratic Participation and Representation at Local Government Level in Uganda (2009), the process of planning seems to be all inclusive at the conference, that is where the needs of the people are got and they are divided into sectorial groups, for example education, health and then come up with problems in those sectors. There after the District Technical Committee then sits down to discuss the problems or needs.

Furthermore, the Local government councils are vested with powers to appoint boards and committees for efficient, effective and transparent service delivery. As specified in the Act, District Councils are supposed to appoint a District Service Commission, a District Tender Board and Local Government Public Accounts Committee (UNDP, 2005). The District Service Commission is mandated to recruit, confirm promote discipline and fire all employees in the services of the district or lower government council (ibid).

The Local government tender boards are responsible for acting upon the request made by the Local council seeking procurement of goods, services or works. The tender board therefore takes care of the procurement and contractual process which is supposed to be separate from the council to avoid conflict of interest in as far as politicians are concerned (UNDP, 2005). The district council has the responsibility of appointing a Local Government Public Accounts Committee which is supposed to examine financial reports of local governments and submit reports to the minister of local government (Localizing the MDGs, 2010). The minister of local government is the overall boss and he or she is part of the cabinet or state.

Actual development takes place at the level of lower local governments (Sub-county). It is at this level that developmental projects from the district and donors are operationalized and it's also here were various avenues for participation are found. There are numerous committees for different areas of service delivery at local level, such as investment, water user Committees, School management, health and environment (Local Governments in Eastern Africa, 2012). Functions of these committees range from management to monitoring as well as mobilisation of community.

With the use of the powers briefly highlighted above in the structure of the Ugandan local government system at different portfolios, the local governments (Districts) are expected to deliver services ranging from primary and secondary education, hospitals, health centres and the control of communicable diseases to construction and rehabilitation and maintenance of roads. Other services aimed at by the local government according to Bird & François (1998), are agricultural extension, district planning, land surveying, land administration,