PESHAWAR, Jan 22: Most of the participants in a one-day consultative workshop were of the view that the implementation of the power devolution plan in the NWFP is not in accordance with the Local Government Ordinance, 2001.

Recommendations put forth at the end of the workshop suggested decentralization of powers at the grass-roots level to influence policy makersimprove social services.

The recommendations were prepared by the participants of the workshop who were divided into three groups to discuss issues relating to social service delivery system and give suggestions for its improvement in the NWFP.

The workshop held on Wednesdaywas arranged by the planning and development department, NWFP, with the financial support of the World Bank. It was aimed to disseminate the bank's "World Development Report-2004" and discuss it in the framework of the NWFP, particularly, focusing on the state of social services and the services delivery system.

The three working groups - one each on the sub-sectors of the social sector including water supply and sanitation, education and health - under their assigned exercises listed out the problems hindering improved service delivery system in the province and raised suggestions for the future improvement.

Besides, they also underlined a host of points recommending that the World Bank should take care of the suggestion through its Structural Adjustment Credit (SAC) under which the government of NWFP's three-year provincial reforms programme (PRP) was being financed.

NWFP Finance, Planning and Development Minister Sirajul Haq opened the workshop and in his introductory remarks highlighted the activities of the provincial government being undertaken to improve social services, achievements recorded under the first year of the implementation of the PRP, its commitment towards delegating powers to the district governments in the light of the LGO, 2001, and financial constraints hampering the uplift programmes.

Shantayanan Devarajan, World Bank's chief economist, and Shekhar Shah, sector manager of the WB, highlighted the importance of empowering the poor people, significance of improving the social service delivery system for the benefit of the poor and cited examples of various countries which managed to improve their social services by making the downtrodden people to influence the policy makers.

Mr Devarajan said that quality of services for poor was typically very poor and was linked directly to the lack of an effective accountability system.

He said that unless a chain of accountability was laid down - under which poor are to influence the policy makers and policy makers to influence the service providers at the grass-roots level - improvement of the social sector and putting in place an effective services delivery system would be hard to achieve.

"Politicians may not be able to monitor service providers, for example they may not be able to control absenteeism among teachers. For this only a monitoring system ensuring active involvement of poor people would bring a change," said the World Bank chief economist.

Mian Asim Ismail, chief economic analyst in the P & D department, NWFP, facilitated the workshop and exercises carried out by the working groups.

"The direct route of accountability would have to be made stronger by empowering the people to crack political patronage often hindering the laying of an improved service delivery system," said Mr Shah.