Damascus-SANA
The Supreme Council of Local Administration, during its meeting today, headed by Prime Minister Hussein Arnous, determined the necessary preparatory measures and the role of the concerned authorities in securing the requirements for conducting local council elections during the coming period within their legal time, and stressed the need to secure the requirements of the electoral process and all its logistical needs.
Arnous pointed out that the local councils are the link between citizens and the executive authority, and the local administration law has given them wide powers, pointing to the importance of expanding administrative decentralization and transferring a set of powers to local authorities to be able to carry out their duties and tasks entrusted to them, explaining the importance of the primary role of governors and committees. The judiciary shall ensure the requirements for the success of the electoral process and ensure that it is conducted in a transparent manner and that citizens choose their representatives with all responsibility.
The Prime Minister stressed the need to encourage expertise and competencies and those who enjoy the confidence of the local community and motivate them to run for elections, given the vital role required of local councils in improving the reality of services, achieving development at the local level, direct response to citizens’ complaints, finding solutions that enhance confidence in these councils, respond to the demands of the local community and involve it in development in all its fields, explaining that these elections are an essential foundation for creating future leaders at higher levels.
Arnos called on the governors to be strict in preventing building violations, limiting the spread of slums inside and outside the organizational plans, focusing on field tours, meeting citizens, discovering and addressing defect sites, paying attention to developing the countryside in a balanced manner, securing more job opportunities in it, and giving the required social, cultural and intellectual aspects.
In turn, the Minister of Local Administration and Environment, Hussein Makhlouf, gave a presentation on the procedures and preparations for organizing local council elections and coordination between governorates, ministries and concerned parties for the success of the elections, as well as the completed stages in the draft national decentralization plan with the aim of granting local councils broader powers in the field of preparing and implementing service and development plans, while governors and heads of The provincial councils presented a number of proposals related to developing the work mechanisms of local councils and strengthening administrative decentralization.
The council stressed the governors to prevent any exceptions, work with regulations and laws to achieve societal justice, and make maximum efforts to improve the revenues of local councils and administrative units by activating investments in them, in addition to following up on the implementation of investment projects with economic feasibility, arranging work priorities in accordance with the requirements of the next stage, preventing infringements on public property, and returning Considering the state property investment allowances.
The Supreme Council of Local Administration stressed the need to strengthen communication and continuous coordination between governors, professional federations, unions and organizations, and activate their role in development as an essential and effective complement to economic and social development, as well as the regulation and control of the shadow economy in a manner that ensures the provision of products of quality and quality and benefits the national economy, as well as activating the framework’s determinants. The national plan for regional planning as a national document for sustainable and balanced development at the spatial level and the optimal investment of the capabilities of each region.
The council agreed to give the governorates 10 billion Syrian pounds to support their independent budgets and to pay the building permit fee for a period of three years in installments to encourage citizens to obtain a license and expedite the implementation of approved planning.
The council discussed a number of governorates' proposals to create administrative units (city, town, municipality) and emphasized setting controls and requirements for the separation or creation of administrative units to be approved in accordance with the local administration law.
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