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The Directorate set up by Berhane Deressa, mayor of
Addis Abeba, to assist him on major issues of the
city, is to present its first district reformation
study next week. If the City Cabinet comes to terms
with the Mayor and approves it, the findings of the
study would be implemented, a Directorate member
told Fortune.
The study was conducted in two of the 10 districts
of the city; Bole and Lideta districts. Bole was
chosen as a sample that shows services in districts
at the edges of the city while Lideta was chosen to
show the services at the centre. The main reason,
however, for choosing both districts is their
rampant inefficiency in service deliveries,
according to City Administration sources.
According to the study, service deliveries in land
related cases involve not less than 17 procedural
steps, in addition to the flaws in file recording
system. Though each district has a difference in
size and number of residents, the fact that there is
an equal number of employees in all has exacerbated
the problem. Moreover, directive number one, which
was promulgated by the Works and Urban Development
Bureau of Ali Abdo’s, former mayor of the city, had
loopholes causing many workers to be arrested with
corruption, sources disclosed.
The directive bestows the City Land Administration
officials the authority to pass decisions in a
committee on undocumented holdings. When issued it
was supposed to be temporary, though it has been in
use for six years now. Using this directive, 7,000
to 8,000 cases have been settled.
The Federal Ethics and Anticorruption Commission has
apprehended not less than 60 individuals from eight
eistricts. A veteran Land Administration official,
who worked in the administration for 20 years told
Fortune his belief that the individuals are
arrested only because of the loopholes in the
directive.
The Directorate has nine members; Feleke Yimer, head
of the Directorate; Abebe Yazew, the city manager’s
office head, Woldesenbet Berhanemeskel, city justice
and legal bureau deputy head; and Solomon Berhane
(PhD), city plan bureau head, are among the list.
The study conducted aimed at implementing a
one-stop-shop in districts and was based on the
format of the Addis Abeba City Roads Authority and
the Ethiopian Investment Authority.
If approved by the Cabinet, the implementation,
which is expected to involve mass reshuffle in
districts, will also be the responsibility of the
Directorate.
Berhane, who believes that petty corruption is
rampant in the city, expects a remarkable change
from the Directorate. In the discussion facilitated
by the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic
Front (EPRDF), the public had recurrently expressed
its discontent with the bureaucratic activities of
district officials who were highly corrupt.
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