British HC team visits Swat: Need stressed for LG reps and officials capacity building

MINGORA: A senior administrative officer on Tuesday stressed the need for building the capacity of officials and local representatives under the new system of Local Government.

Malakand Division Commissioner Shahidullah Khan made the suggestion as he met a six-member delegation of the British High Commission at the Commissioner’s Office Saidu Sharif on Tuesday.

Led by Governance Advisor Matt Carter, other delegation members included Economist Tufail Khan Yousafzai, Program Officer Amala Najeeb, Program Coordinator Athar Waqar, and Political Secretary Sam Fletcher.

The purpose of the delegation’s visit was an annual review of the Sub-National Governance Program (SNG) funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office.

The SNG Program provides technical support to officers and local representatives in tehsils on planning, budgeting, and revenue mobilization in the four districts of Malakand.Commissioner Shahidullah Khan thanked the delegation for providing technical support through the SNG Program and hoped that the program would provide more support.

He said that local governments have to work on revenue mobilization ideas considering the local situation to show better performance in which the SNG Program can be helpful.The commissioner appreciated such training programs for local representatives and officers at the tehsil level and

He appreciated the ongoing support for solid waste management and said that waste could be better utilized by recycling and that more proposals need to be worked on. The commissioner drew the attention of the delegation to Mingora traffic management and said that there is a need to work on new ideas in this regard as well.

Matt Carter said this was his first visit to Swat and he was impressed by the natural beauty of Swat and the hospitality of the people of the valley.

He said that the purpose of the annual review is to improve the targets of the SNG Program by meeting the senior officials so that better work can be done on budgeting, planning, and revenue mobilization with the provincial and local governments.