Reality and Obstacles to the Implementation of Strategic Plans in Jenin Municipality رسالة ماجستير

Abstract

This study aims to identify the reality and obstacles of the strategic planning in the Municipality of Jenin, where the qualitative or qualitative approach was adopted in this study. Through Study and analysis the strategic plans, there is a compatibility with the ministry and Jenin governorate strategic plans, and coordinating its planning between the Municipality of Jenin and local government to develop plans, analyzing the budgets and its compatibility with the strategic plan, Analysis the financial capacity of the Municipality of Jenin and its self-potential dependency to provide the resources, which help with strategic plan’s implementation.

The researcher used interviews to target 31 senior and middle-level employees in the municipality and local government, as well as some members of the former municipality, as well as individuals from the local community and government institutions who participated in the preparation of the strategic plan, focus groups and initial sources of financial and administrative reports, staff payroll and the budgets from 2012 until 2015, but because of absence of the elections from 2017 to 2017, the plan was extended 2017; analysis of the internal environment of the municipality of Jenin and identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges, the researcher used secondary sources, most important books, articles, magazines and reports, also it contains a historical overview of local government, the municipality of Jenin, literature review as well as the theoretical framework of local government. Moreover, it contains the field study, which included the field appetizers and their analysis, as well as the

results of the research and the main recommendations that emerged from the research.

This thesis came out with the main results which are: The percentage of the strategic plan implementation from 2012 to 2017 was 43.63%.

The most important obstacles are as follows: The lack of funding for the Palestinian National Authority, which weaken the municipalities funding; including the Municipality of Jenin, the functional inflation, absence of financial planning, lack of funds to implement the strategic plan in the municipality, lack of economic partnerships with the community, in addition the lack of partnerships with competence from all sectors of society in preparing the strategic plan , as well as, the lack of community participation in preparing and follow-up of the plan, also the municipality culture in strategic plan preparation is just for bringing, funding but not for planning and development, in addition the development agency’s role was not having a program to develop strategic plans and funding projects listed therein. There is weakness in the structure, lack of Scientific and technical qualifications and poor distribution within the Municipality of Jenin, in addition it didn’t have a longer operational plan to implement the strategic plans.

There is a weakness in the internal control of Jenin Municipality and monitoring the strategic plan implementation through the internal control of the Ministry of Local Government, the budget department, guidance and control, there is a problem in planning, where the strategic plan in the municipalities is not consistent with the strategic plan in local governance and non-coordination, and the staff has a lack of affiliation to the municipality and do not have a culture of strategic planning as an administrative and financial approach, as well as, there is no section that follows the strategic plans in the municipality of Jenin, lack of centralization and decentralization

clarity of the relationship between the Ministry of Local and Municipal Government, is

it a handicap or a specific one for the advancement of the municipality in its current situation, the researcher and the respondents opinion that in the meantime the central is better to help the municipality out of the current dilemma, in addition; the method of elections in the list produced less efficient people and therefore it was recommended from all respondent’s that the existing elections were impeding the implementation of the Strategic Plan, as well as the election of the president directly helps in the selection of a strong president and has the broad support of the community, which helps to develop the municipality and out of the impasse and there is no community accountability responsible for changes in the municipality of Jenin because of the loss of citizen confidence in the municipality and despair of change.

The municipality's administration plan was not a strategic plan for the city of Jenin, it was for all sectors, which was impossible to implement with the municipality's own capabilities; as the strategic plan was unrealistic. The judicial and law did not help the municipality to collect the debts, as there was a presidential decree issued by President Abu Ammar, which forbidden cutting off the electricity and water for those who failed to pay. In addition to the above, the occupation with all its economic, political, cultural and terrorist repercussions is a real impediment to the development and implementation of strategic plans in all of Palestine, including the Municipality of Jenin.

Recommendations % Solve the problem of occupational inflation by assuming the financial burden of the Palestinian National Authority as a result of either the transfer of

employees to early retirement or absorption in government institutions, expand