Where do local councils get their revenue and where do they spend it?

Damascus-SANA

The local councils are characterized as having a legal personality that has financial and administrative independence, that is, as the specialists call it “a lady of her own accord” because she has complete freedom to manage her property and revenues.. But the sophistication and management of the management of each local council and the cooperation among its members is the arbiter of the results achieved from these revenues, therefore. We may see two local councils receive similar financial revenues, but one area is better served than the other.

The first thing that comes to mind about this issue is where the local councils get their revenues from?

This was explained by a number of those in charge of these councils that the revenues of the financial budget of the administrative unit come from several sources, “a source from the origin of the administrative unit as a result of the services it provides, for example asphalting a street that has fees related to the budget of the local council… as well as from building permit fees or a fine for Any violation or fees from billboards…etc.” As for the second source, it is from the Investment Department of the administrative unit, and the third source is collected from public authorities, where a percentage of tax collection from the Ministry of Finance goes to the central account of the Ministry of Local Administration, which in turn distributes it to the administrative units according to The population of each unit area.

And when the Financial Law No. 37 of 2021 was issued, it strengthened the independence of the local councils, providing good financial resources for the administrative unit. The Deputy Minister of Local Administration and Environment Moataz Kattan explained in a statement to SANA that the financial law is identical with the local administration law in terms of equality between administrative units and their transfer from the hierarchical level. To the horizontal level, it also unified the financial laws related to the revenues of administrative units into a legislative unit characterized by modernity and in line with legislative developments, and merging two assessment committees “fee for improvement” into one committee in order to simplify procedures for citizens.

For more clarification, the financial law, according to Qattan, gave administrative units the power to make transfers between the items and paragraphs of one chapter of the current budgets by the Executive Office and granting city, town and municipal councils the powers to issue their decisions in determining the amounts and percentages of fees included in this project without the approval of these decisions by the provincial council as it was Previously, this was an application of the principle of decentralization and a simplification of the procedures for imposing fees that are approved by the provincial council only. It also allowed it to make decisions to impose service allowances for service centers in accordance with Article 38 of it.

The Assistant Minister of Local Administration and Environment indicated that the law amended the method of distributing paving and asphalt fees, as the fee was distributed equally between owners of neighboring and non-neighboring properties that benefit from paving and sidewalks in order to achieve justice and to reduce the burden on citizens on the one hand and to help the administrative unit collect these fees on the other hand. All this contributes to enhancing the financial revenues of the administrative units, enabling them to implement their projects and provide services to citizens in a better way, in a manner that secures the revenues necessary to perform their duties and provide services to the local community that belongs to them.

The broad powers granted by the Local Administration Law to the local councils and enabled them to develop their administrative units in the service, economically, socially, culturally and urban terms was reinforced by Financial Law No. 37 as it helped the councils to supplement their budgets with new revenues that help them improve their financial situation and enable them to carry out their responsibilities according to the statement of the Director of Councils and Local Development in the Ministry of Administration Locality and Environment Eng. Iyad Al-Shamaa for SANA.

Al-Shama’a considered that the Local Administration Law constituted a qualitative leap for the election and selection of our representatives in these local councils, as it gave them wide powers that did not exist previously, and the body of decentralization in all its dimensions, so the administrative unit became independent by itself and has absolute powers to invest its resources, develop its work and expand its projects, and was able under the Financial Law of 2021 Determining the upper and lower limits of its financial revenues and the value and type of the financial fee in a way that enables it to create projects and investments in partnership with the party it deems appropriate.

Al-Shamaa pointed out that local councils have the greatest role in the advancement and upgrading of their cities, towns and municipalities and to improve the economic reality by attracting new investments and developing strategic plans for the four years in which they exercise their tasks, each in his region, considering that the local administration law gave absolute freedom for the local council to work and implement, but there is still ignorance about it. With its articles, it needs to be known more so that stakeholders can exercise their powers well and carry out their tasks to the fullest.

On the other hand, participatory work plays the most important role in achieving good achievements and results with the work of each local council according to the candle. Therefore, the experiences that have made a mark in the work of the local councils must be preserved and supported in order to remain and continue and to choose the most efficient new ones to provide the ground for each person seeking to advance his country in cooperation with his colleagues in the same field. The cooperation between the members of any local council is very necessary to achieve the aspirations and aspirations of the citizen, especially at this stage.

“The Local Administration Law is the compass.” This was confirmed by the Director of Decision Support and Regional Planning in the Governorate of Damascus Countryside, Engineer Abdul Razzaq Dhamiriya, in his statement to SANA, considering that this law is the compass that guides the work of the heads of administrative units and governorates, as it clarifies the work of the councils, their enumeration and their powers on the ground. In particular, the local council draws up strategies, plans and actions for the governorate that will be implemented through the executive office emanating from the governorate council and other local councils.

The Local Administration Law specified the mechanisms for naming cities, countries and municipalities, and the latest Council of the Local Administration, which is concerned with developing the national decentralization plan concerned with transferring powers from institutions and ministries to administrative units according to a conscience, noting that this contributes to eliminating corruption and red tape in the work of the councils, calling for holding seminars to introduce more The law and the need to connect people who are able to implement it properly and to exercise their responsibilities and duties to the fullest.

The aforementioned legislation placed serious responsibilities on the shoulders of the administrative units and those in charge of them, which requires all segments of society that are entitled to vote in the upcoming elections to give their voice to the right person, the most qualified and the most capable of carrying out these responsibilities in a way that helps improve the livelihood of the local community and improve its services.

Ambassador Ismail-Nada Ajeeb

Follow Sana's news on Telegram https://t.me/SyrianArabNewsAgency