Minister of Cities, Administrative Regions and Public Works Adam Shareef Umar has said that councils must be made ready to be accountable to the people. The Minister said this in an interview given to PSM News regarding the work of his ministry. The current government has created a special ministry to improve the relationship between councils and the government and strengthen the decentralized system. The Minister of Administrative Regions said that after a year and a half of this ministry’s work, councils have now accepted the ministry’s work.
The Minister noted that the main work of the ministry is to play a mediating role between the government and councils. He said that so far, important operational principles of the ministry have been developed and implemented. With this, the Minister noted that work is being done to bring positive change to the system. Minister Adam Shareef said that the most important focus of this system is to empower the people, and councils need to make the biggest progress in doing so.
“It is very important that there are opportunities and ways to do things within the jurisdiction of councils. Councils need to be made into bodies that people trust and can rely on, and for that, changes need to be made to the Decentralization Act as well,” said Minister of Administrative Regions Adam Shareef Umar. Minister Adam Shareef has said that while making systematic changes, councils need to be made into places that are accountable to the people and can be held accountable by the people. Therefore, the Minister said that in the future, the ministry will focus most on expanding the services provided by councils and making councils a place that voices the people’s opinions.
The Minister said that even now, while various projects are being carried out in islands by different state ministries, when the President visits these islands, people ask for major changes to these projects. The Minister noted that the main reason for this is that people’s opinions are not properly understood in the initial stage of the project. “It is something we very much hope for in our ministry as well, that when various projects are carried out and implemented, there is a lot of consultation with councils, and these things are done under the advice and guidance of councils and people,” said Minister Adam Shareef.
In addition to strengthening the decentralized system, the government is also working to provide the resources needed by councils. As such, while work is being done to develop 50 councils with the help of the Chinese government, a team from China is scheduled to come this month to conduct a feasibility study for this work, Minister Adam Shareef has said. In addition, the Minister noted that work is also progressing on 55 councils being developed at government expense.
