VZCZCXRO2963
RR RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK RUEHROV
DE RUEHAM #2672/01 2591226
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 151226Z SEP 08
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3527
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 AMMAN 002672 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV JO
SUBJECT: MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY IMPROVES BUT 
DEVELOPMENT REMAINS CHALLENGING 
 
REF: A. AMMAN 528 
     ¶B. AMMAN 2383 
     ¶C. AMMAN 2985 
 
AMMAN 00002672  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary and comment:  One year after the passage of 
the 2007 Municipalities Law (Ref A), the Ministry of 
Municipal Affairs (MoMA) and local officials generally view 
it as a successful reform of the 1955 law.  Direct election 
of local officials has improved governmental accountability, 
and local governments now have the ability 
to drive development and infrastructure projects.  However, 
tight budgets and inexperience in attracting private sector 
partners have hindered efforts by smaller municipalities to 
deliver basic infrastructure improvements.  End Summary and 
comment. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Poloffs visited municipalities of varying sizes 
over the course of several months to broadly gauge reactions 
to the 2007 statute.  Several larger and wealthier 
municipalities, including Amman, Madaba, and Ramtha (near the 
Syrian border) were visited as were smaller, less affluent 
municipalities including Sahil Horan and Wadi Al-Hour (just 
west of Amman).  A visit to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs 
in June provided the government's perspective on the impact 
of the new statue on municipal governance and relations with 
the government. 
 
Changes Resulting from the 2007 Municipalities Law 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Jordan's new Municipalities Law was passed in March 
2007 to replace the pre-existing 1955 law and its 
associated amendments.  Under the new statute nearly all 
municipalities are governed by a directly elected mayor 
and municipal council.  Note: The exceptions are the Greater 
Amman Municipality, where the mayor and half the 
municipal council are appointed by the Cabinet; Aqaba, which 
is governed by the appointed Aqaba Special Economic Zone 
Authority (Ref B); and Wadi Mousa, which is governed by an 
appointed Petra Regional Authority.  End Note.  Elections 
take place every four years, and 20 percent of the individual 
council seats are reserved for women.  Councils are required 
to hold a minimum of one weekly session, and citizens with 
direct interest in agenda issues may participate provided 
that council decisions on those issues are taken in closed 
session.  Municipalities are responsible for (among other 
things) city planning and zoning, sewage and waste disposal, 
and road construction.  Budgets must be submitted to MoMA for 
the approval of the Minister. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Thanks to the new law, in July 2007 local citizens 
elected both mayors and municipal council members for the 
first time since the 1930s (Ref C).  Local officials we 
subsequently met with cited the new law as a source of 
improving citizen-municipality relations; all argued they are 
now more accountable to the public.  In Madaba, officials 
noted that local control has created new channels of 
interaction between the people and their government.  The 
popularly-elected mayor of Ramtha, Hussein Abu Al-Sheeh, 
credited the law with creating an "integrated" municipal 
government that can respond to direct appeals from its 
citizenry. 
 
MoMA Maintains Generally Positive Relations and Oversight 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The ministry maintains some oversight of municipal 
finances under provisions of the 2007 law.  Municipalities 
retain "financial independence" in the sense that they manage 
their funds as they see fit to address 
local needs, but MoMA requires that annual budgets be 
submitted for the approval of the Minister and retains the 
right to conduct full, unannounced audits of all municipal 
funds and financial or administrative transactions.  The 
purpose is to prevent "mismanagement" at the local level, 
according to Ma'moon Salah, head of legal affairs at MoMA. 
In such instances MoMA would step in to resolve the issue 
"cooperatively and according to law." 
 
¶6.  (SBU) The relationship between MoMA and local 
municipalities appears mostly positive from the Ministry's 
perspective.  Salah noted that he had not seen evidence of 
significant tension between the two parties.  The MoMA, 
according to Salah, stood ready to assist any municipality 
with budgetary questions, planning concerns, and supervised 
project implementation if requested.  Nonetheless, local 
officials who spoke to Emboffs differed in their assessment 
of their relationships with MoMA.  Most were generally 
positive, though officials from smaller towns pointed out 
that help from MoMA to build basic infrastructure, such as 
waste management systems, had yet to materialize. 
 
AMMAN 00002672  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Salah also credited the statute with broadening the 
role of municipalities in economic development work. 
The law, according to Salah, creates an environment in which 
communities and the private sector have a stake in local 
development and are increasingly empowered to work for the 
benefit of the community.  This environment encourages 
municipalities to partner with the private sector to deliver 
projects targeted to meet specific local infrastructure and 
development needs. 
 
Large Municipalities Outpace Their Smaller Cousins 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Exercising the authorities given to them by the new 
law, larger, more affluent municipalities are pursuing 
a range of development projects and infrastructure 
improvements while smaller municipalities are struggling to 
meet basic infrastructure needs.  Madaba, a city of 60,000 
located some 30 miles south-west of Amman, is working on a 
development zone designed to bring investment into the city. 
Designated a tourist and heritage site, Madaba is also 
benefiting from infrastructure upgrades paid for by the World 
Bank, Ministry of Tourism, and USAID.  Ramtha, a market town 
of 120,000 near the Syrian border, has exercised its 
new-found authority to re-develop a vegetable market and 
build two new public parks, according to Mayor Hussein Abu 
Al-Sheeh.  The city council, according to Sheeh, now serves 
as a "development institution" for the area. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Far from tourist areas and new city parks, small 
municipalities are straining to attract much-needed 
investment and close gaps in basic infrastructure.  Sahil 
Horan, a small municipality comprising four villages near 
Ramtha, aims to reduce traffic congestion in residential 
areas and create a mixed-use commercial complex, according 
to Mayor Bassam Darabsa.  The village of Wadi al-Hour, part 
of the Greater Salt Municipality, is seeking to improve its 
basic infrastructure by building and repaving roads and 
installing a sewer system. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Comment:  Ramtha and Madaba are both large 
municipalities where more of the basic infrastructure is 
already in place, meaning that the municipal budget does not 
have to be expended on building basic improvements.  This is 
not so in smaller municipalities, where basic issues like 
sewage disposal remain unresolved, and therefore must be 
funded from the yearly budget.  End comment. 
 
Tight Budgets 
------------- 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Concern over available funds was a common theme 
across meetings with officials from municipalities of all 
sizes.  Note: The majority of municipal funding is revenue 
from the national fuel tax and is disbursed as transfer 
grants from the Ministry of Finance.  Recently, inflationary 
pressures have forced the Ministry to slow and in some 
instances end these grants due to decreased revenue. 
Following the early 2008 elimination of remaining fuel 
subsidies, as world oil prices soared, the GOJ opted for a 
flat tax in order to offset high prices paid by consumers. 
With oil prices falling, however, the GOJ will resume taxes 
on a percentage basis and revenues are expected to increase. 
End Note.  Officials in larger municipalities, like Ramtha 
and Madaba, expressed concern that inflationary pressure 
could limit their ability to pursue projects designed to 
attract investment; while budgets in Sahil Horan and Wadi 
al-Hour strained to meet basic infrastructure needs.  Ramtha 
Mayor Al-Sheeh called his budget of JD 3 million "sufficient 
but tight" and expressed concern that price inflation could 
push the municipality into a JD 150,000 deficit.  Officials 
in Madaba expressed similar concerns, noting that their 
budget of JD 3.5 million was submitted prior to price 
increases. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) In smaller municipalities, budgetary shortfalls 
are directly impacting development and infrastructure 
projects.  Officials in Sahil Horan indicated that employee 
salaries alone accounted for 40 percent of their total 
annual budget of JD 1.6 million.  The municipality simply 
lacked the funds to start needed projects like improving the 
sewer system, and received a much needed garbage truck last 
year as a gift from the Royal Court rather than paying for it 
out of the small municipal budget.  In the village of Wadi 
Al-Hour, officials indicated that their total budget was 
typically half of the amount required to undertake new 
projects.  Local officials noted that the past several times 
the village had put out tenders for work, no contractors had 
bid, as they simply did not see a profit in it, considering 
the meager ceiling on what the village could offer. 
 
AMMAN 00002672  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶13.  (SBU) The direct election of mayors and municipal 
councils was a positive step towards increasing the 
accountability and responsiveness of local government.  The 
inclusion of women on local councils, even if by quota, was a 
significant step forward on improving the representative 
nature of municipal governance.  However, despite electoral 
progress, significant challenges to increased development and 
infrastructure projects remain.  Municipal efforts are 
hampered by the new law, which granted expanded 
responsibility to local governments, but did not clearly 
define or codify "development."  The greatest obstacle to 
progress is that municipal governments have little or no 
experience partnering with the private sector on joint 
projects, and consequently have difficulty attracting much 
needed investment.  Such issues not withstanding, the growth 
of local knowledge in public-private partnerships 
and citizen engagement in municipal governance should pay 
long-term dividends for Jordan. 
 
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