A BID by Bahrain's three municipal councils and their counterpart in Manama to safeguard their powers will now go through parliament, after they were told they did not have authority to submit a case at the Constitutional Court.
The Northern, Southern and Muharraq Municipal Councils and the Capital Trustees Board had planned to contest a new ruling, which they argue imposes limits on their financial and administrative independence.
However, they have been told the matter can only be referred to the Constitutional Court '“ the highest court in Bahrain '“ by His Majesty King Hamad, the Shura Council, parliament or by a judge overseeing an ongoing case.
Councils' chairmen and Capital Trustees Board acting chairman Mazen Alumran met yesterday to plan out their strategy at the Northern Municipal Council headquarters.
They now plan to approach parliament tomorrow to ask MPs to vote on referring the case to the Constitutional Court.
It follows a decision in March by the Legal Opinion and Legalisation Commission, which ruled the four bodies should come under the authority of the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) and Finance Ministry.
The Commission determined that they should not be considered independent bodies, since elected councillors and appointed Capital Trustees Board members and support staff are funded by the government.
'For the past 12 years councils have been independent financially and administratively, with their chairmen taking decisions on spending, and since then there have been no changes to the laws governing this, so why now?' asked Muharraq Municipal Council chairman Mohammed Al Sinan.
'Now we have various ministers interfering in our affairs '“ whether it is the Works, Municipalities and Urban Planning Affairs Minister, Finance Minister or Parliament and Shura Council Affairs Minister, who is also the CSB chairman, besides municipalities director-generals, among others.
'The King formed councils to represent people's power, but here the government is forcing its will on us and our affairs '“ rather than just being an executive body.'
Northern Municipal Council chairman Mohammed Bu Hamood argued the government was often unaware of spending requirements and should not be taking decisions on behalf of public representatives.
'A ruling is needed by the Constitutional Court and we will accept whatever it says, but we need to know where we stand,' he said.
'Are we truly here to represent the public, or just here to inform the public about what the government wants?
'We are aware of the nature of our areas and the finances we need.
'Keep our money under a separate fund under the Finance Ministry, but give us direct access, let us control our employees. We know what tasks to give them and where to direct them.
'Since we have no direct access to the Constitutional Court, we are now seeking parliament's support and we have already been offered support by parliament chairman Ahmed Al Mulla.'
Southern Municipal Council chairman Ahmed Al Ansari said municipal councils were united in their resolve.
'We want to serve the public which entrusted us with their votes, but depriving us of our powers will not lead this country anywhere,' he said.
However, Finance Ministry Under-Secretary Aref Khamis told the GDN that requests for spending would not be turned down under the new guidelines.
'We are a ministry that distributes money according to assigned budgets whenever asked by ministries and government bodies with justification,' he said.
'If councils are dealing with emergencies like fires and people being homeless, we can give payments within an hour through a phone call until we receive necessary documents.
'Requests that follow procedures are passed by us immediately without delay.
'Sometimes we don't receive any, so we can't take action, but are still blamed for following a bureaucratic process even though we are not at fault.'
By Mohammed Al A’Ali
