In cooperation with the Jericho Municipality, the Coalition for Integrity and Accountability (AMAN) held a workshop targeting municipal employees, and revolved around the rights and obligations of workers in local bodies. The Mayor, Advocate Hasan Saleh, initiated the session by stating that local governance in Palestine is in need of a realistic approach wherein all citizens participate in building their society within the parameters and terms of appropriate conduct towards local bodies and their society. This, he added, can be accomplished through awareness of rights and obligations conditional for these contributions. Mayor Saleh explained that although workers in local bodies have rights and obligations, they cannot exact their rights before fulfilling their obligations; he also pointed out the difference between the realities of local bodies and any others, which might be inconsistent with the regulations the Ministry is attempting to implement. Mayor Saleh further stated that workers of local bodies are the corner stone upon which rests the process of developing this institution.
During the workshop, consultant, legal researcher, and advocate Bilal Barghouthi reviewed before the participating employees the general provisions regulating local body workers’ obligations and codes of conduct as well as the resulting sanctions if those provisions are not fulfilled. He also reviewed the rights of local body employees in addition to the end-of service final provisions; furthermore, Mr. Barghouthi went over the principal parameters of the law regulating local bodies and the extent to which it actually addresses the concepts of integrity, transparency and accountability.
AMAN Project Coordinator Mohammad Liftawi, was one of the organizers of this workshop, which aimed to bring to the participants an understanding of the concepts of “centralization and decentralization” and the extent to which the law regulating integrity, transparency and accountability responds to these issues.
