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Communication and Ward Development Committees in Chipata: a Zambian Case-Study of Administrative Inertia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008
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A consultant is not expected to report that he cannot explain why things are the way they are. Such a conclusion tends to undermine belief in the expert as well as on the part of the client. It can, however, be the true state of affairs. In our opinion there is ample reason to admit to ignorance as regards the causes of widespread administrative inertia in the Third World, where bureaucracies often just do not function: letters are not replied to, appointments are kept haphazardly, and rules are either absent or referred to in the extreme. Bureaucratic behaviour is, as a result, often highly unpredictable for citizens. This is especially painful when it concerns necessities. In Zambia, for example, it is virtually impossible to travel or look for work without identification documents, but in the rural areas, people may have cycled for 20 or 30 kilometres to the headquarters of the District in order to get a National Registration Card only to find that the civil servant responsible is away for an undetermined period.
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- Africana
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983
References
page 141 note 1 The research for this study was carried out during 1974–1975 as part of the Administration for Rural Development Project organised by the National Institute of Public Administration, the Rural Development Studies Bureau of the University of Zambia, and the Free University of Amsterdam. Although the Government has reorganised the structures of District Administration since 1980–1981, this does not affect the validity of our findings.
page 141 note 2 The standard work applying modernisation theory to administrative behaviour is by Riggs, F. W., Administration in Developing Countries: the theory of prismatic society (Boston, 1964).Google ScholarHyden, Goran, Beyond Ujamaa in Tanzania: underdevelopment and an uncaptured peasantry (London, 1980),Google Scholar is a sophisticated and recent modification applied to an African country. The theory of contradictory class interests between bureaucracy and peasantry is regularly proposed in the Review of African Political Economy (London) - e.g.Google Scholar Philip L. Raikes, ‘Ujamaa and Rural Socialism’, in ibid. 3, May–October 1974. For a general overview of pleas for reform of administrative structures, see Rweyemamu, Anthony H. and Hyden, Goran, A Decade of Public Administration in Africa, Part III, Reforming the Structures of the Public Service (Dar es Salaam, 1974). We do not argue that there is no value in such explanations, but these do not explain the specific problem of administrative inertia.Google Scholar
page 142 note 1 Kaunda, Kenneth D., Humanism in Zambia and a Guide to Its Implementation, Part I (Lusaka, 1967), p. 31.Google Scholar
page 142 note 2 Registration and Development of Villages Act, 1971 (Lusaka, 1971), First Schedule (Section 8), No. 11.Google Scholar
page 143 note 1 Ibid. Third Schedule (Section 15), No. 7 (d).
page 144 note 2 Ibid. First Schedule (Section 8), No. 2 (a), (c), and (d).
page 144 note 1 For example, Administrative Assistant, Kagoro, to District Secretary, SERV/4/5, Water Supply, Vol. I, Chipata Rural Council: ‘in view of this fact [not sinking the proposed boreholes], I should convey that Councillor Chigage is indeed in trouble with his electorate in his Ward’.
page 144 note 2 Letter from the Chairman, W.D.C.No. 10, to the District Agricultural Officer and Chairman, Chipata Rural Council, 10 March 1972, Boma File, Ward No. 10.
page 144 note 3 Minutes of Ward No. 13, 7 October 1973, Boma File, Ward No. 13.
page 144 note 4 Interview with the Assistant Public Works Officer following the W.D.C. meeting in Ward No. 17, 8 March 1975.
page 145 note 1 Observation during W.D.C. meeting in Ward No. 17, 8 March 1975.
page 145 note 2 Joint W.D.C. meeting of Wards Nos. 5, 15, and 16 at Kalichero, 12 April 1975.
page 145 note 3 Letter from Administrative Assistant to Engineering Assistant, Department of Water Affairs, 19 September 1974, SERV/4/5, Water Supply, Chipata Rural Council.
page 146 note 1 Monthly W.D.C. report, October 1974, to the District Governors of Chipata, Katete, and Chadiza.
page 146 note 2 For example, Kagoro Sub-Centre, Annual Report, 1974: ‘in most cases the items embodied in the Ward Committee minutes were not attended to by appropriate Departments’.
page 147 note 2 The ‘third-copies circulation file’ contained all outgoing correspondence of the Office of the Governor, and was circulated to the Governor, the District Secretary and A.D.C.s, the C.O./G.D., the Sub-Accountant, and the Registry.
page 148 note 1 Boma File, Ward No. 16, 27 February 1975.
page 148 note 2 Monthly W.D.C. report, January 1975; A.D.M. 1/25/7, Vol. II, Chipata Rural Council.
page 148 note 3 Interview with Secretary, Chipata Rural Council.
page 148 note 4 Secretary, Chipata Rural Council, to Provincial Local Government Officer, 4 April 1975, A.D.C./1/25/7, Vol. II.
page 148 note 5 Hyden, op. cit.
page 149 note 1 Ibid.
page 149 note 2 Bratton, Michael, ‘The Social Context of Political Penetration: Village and Ward Committees in Kasama District’, in Tordoff, William (ed.), Administration in Zambia (Manchester, 1980), pp. 234–5.Google Scholar
page 149 note 3 Cf. Taylor, P. L., Decentralisation for Coordinated Rural Development (Lusaka, 1971);Google ScholarReport of the Working Party Appointed to Review the System of Decentralised Administration (Lusaka, 1972);Google ScholarKapteyn, R. C. E. and Emery, C. R., District Administration in Zambia (Lusaka, 1972);Google Scholar and Proposals for Integrated Local Government (Lusaka, 1978).Google Scholar
page 150 note 1 See, for example, McHenry, Henry, ‘The Village Productivity Committee System and Production Targets in Mkushi District’, Lusaka, 1974, mimeographed.Google Scholar