Baghdad Devolves Powers to Thi Qar Province

This has meant that some development projects related to state services have been put on hold. At the same time Dhi Qar's provincial council voted to abolish all the smaller, municipal councils in the province, despite objections from their members. This has led to widespread confusion about who is in charge of what.

To overcome this, the provincial council has formed a number of committees whose task it will be to oversee the transfer of powers, preparing plans to solve any past and future issues.

Despite the good public relations, opinion is divided in Dhi Qar about whether this changeover will actually bring any tangible results. Why would local administrators not have the same kinds of problems with corruption, sectarianism and nepotism that the central government does? Why wouldn't local administrators also just take the money and the power that is coming their way, despite more proximity to those affected by this?

As long as party quotas – the unofficial quota system used in Iraqi politics that sees different parties get jobs and seats based on their sect or ethnicity – remain in place, nothing will make any difference, argues Imad Haddad, one of the organisers of popular protests in Dhi Qar's capital, Nasiriya.

“The quota system only serves the interests of influential parties,” he says, “which is why the demonstrations should continue.”

And Falah al-Nouri, a local activist, says the speedy devolution of powers from the central government in Baghdad to provinces like Dhi Qar is due to one thing: the central government's very current desire to rid itself of the responsibility of providing the basic services that protesters are haranguing it about.

“The government neglected all the previous demands,” al-Nouri argues. “But now they are searching for any kind of success to improve their image.”

In order to calm critics and protestors the Dhi Qar authorities have launched a new campaign they are calling the “service mobilization” campaign. This is supposed to provide a rapid response to protestors' demands. Almost a dozen managers have been removed from their jobs and departments are being prepared so that as soon as powers are transferred from Baghdad, performance can be improved as quickly as possible, local authorities insist.

“All the potential powers available to us will be dedicated to this campaign in order to ensure its effectiveness and continuity,” stated Adel al-Dukhili, the deputy governor of the province.

Right now demonstrations are still going on and the general public remain angry at the deterioration in public services but really, it is just too early to review the effectiveness of the campaign or of the transfer of federal powers to provincial authorities.

(Source: Niqash)