RAWALPINDI, Sept 20: The local governments have been urged to give top priority to education, health and drinking water in their budgets and to improve public delivery system in order to strengthen democracy at grass-root level.

This was the consensus reached at a one-day seminar on “Local Government System: The Way Ahead”, organised by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in Rawalpindi on Wednesday.

Speaking as chief guest, Auditor-General of Pakistan Mohammad Younis Khan said low priority to health and education was the main obstacle in the way of public delivery system. Referring to the budget of the local government in Rawalpindi, he regretted that only four to six per cent of the budget was being spent on health and education, while 90 per cent was going to salaries.

He urged representatives of local governments to save every single penny to spend on education. “As you spend more on education, you will protect the future generation,” Mr Khan said. He urged the local government officials to set their priorities right. “A number of countries, including Korea, were behind us, but due to setting priorities in the right direction, they are now much ahead of us,” he said.

The auditor-general of Pakistan urged the district government officials to follow the fundamental financial rules in letter and spirit. The district account committees have not taken seriously the audit objections raised by the office of Auditor- General. “Take all objections seriously instead of regularising them,” he said.

In his presentation, Mohammad Naeemul Haque, member, National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB), said the local government system served as a model of local democracy and it was moving in the right direction. He said there were some irritants in the local government system, but through amendments in June 2005, these had been removed to a great extent. The amendments were made to consolidate and strengthen the system, he said.

“You must have faith in the system; responsibility is to respond to the needs of the people, and the local government system has all the ingredients to respond to public needs,” he told councillors.