PESHAWAR, Nov 17: A World Bank team has recommended the NWFP government to improve its working relationship with the district governments in order to resolve issues hampering smooth functioning of work both at the provincial and district levels, official sources said.

The recommendation has been made by a team of experts from the World Bank which conducted annual review of the NWFP government’s performance viz-a-viz implementation of the three-year Provincial Reforms Programme (PRP) being funded under the bank’s Structural Adjustment Credit (SAC) programme.

“There seems to be a lack of alignment between the provincial and the local governments which seems to be affecting inter-governmental working relationship,” the World Bank noted in its recently compiled report on the implementation of the PRP.

The Nazims of all the 24 district governments of the NWFP had resigned en bloc in June last to protest against certain measures adopted by the provincial government, which they regarded as infringement of their rights and against the powers entrusted to them under the NWFP Local Government Ordinance, 2001.

Though they withdrew their resignations later after being persuaded by the federal government, most of them do not enjoy cordial working relationship with the MMA-led NWFP government.

The donor agency, in its report, has also pointed out some of the issues hampering development of a congenial working atmosphere between the two parties in the NWFP.

It said: “This (non-alignment between the two) is manifested in many ways, such as on issues of transfer and posting of staff in districts, excessive restriction on the province to district transfer of funds through the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) award and limited interaction and consultation between the two levels of government.”

In an effort to rectify the situation, the World Bank has suggested that the provincial government should make efforts to improve inter-governmental working relationship and work in coordination with the district governments to resolve issues.

The provincial government has also been advised that the suggestions awaiting decisions like improving working environment for the district governments and improving inter-governmental coordination should be adopted after discussing them at appropriate forums.

One of the recommendations referred by the bank in its annual report is about introducing an effective mechanism to make intra-district transfers subject to veto of the district consultative committees and inter-district transfer of staff in any grade subject to the veto of the district council.

The move to introduce an effective mechanism for the posting and transfer of staff within the district and from one district to another had been necessitated after majority of the district governments strongly opposed transfer of thousands of teachers on the orders of the provincial government.

In this respect, the existing policy of intra and inter-district staff transfers in which the executive district officers make most decisions without consulting the district government has been viewed, by the World Bank report, as one of the issues needing immediate redress.