58
Surveys, the existence of a survey capability closer to the land to be surveyed obviously can reduce
costs, which have been the major obstacle to applicants' obtaining 99-year leases.
The ministry has for the last several years been opening offices in provincial capitals. Both
the Lands Department and the Department of Surveys now have some staff in each provincial capital,
though these are skeleton staffs. At present, the Department of Surveys has offices in Kabwe, Ndola,
Livingstone, and Kasama. The Department of Lands now has some staff in every provincial capital.
There are plans to move the Northern Regional Office from headquarters to Ndola, and to establish
a Lands and Deeds Registry there for the northern provinces. The pace of the process has been
constrained by a lack of funding and qualified staff.4 .` Support for establishment costs for provincial
offices is a clear priority for donor assistance, provided the ministry demonstrates that it can generate
the revenues necessary to maintain the system.
But there are also some questions that need to be raised about the decentralization process to
date. First, the purpose and implementation of the opening of the new offices has not always been well
thought out. There is, for instance, no centralized supervision of Lands Department and Survey
Department offices at the provincial level. They operate as if they were from different ministries, each
reporting to its home department in Lusaka. The Lands Department's provincial-level staff lacks
vehicles and, more important, clear terms of reference. While staff have been decentralized, decision-
making has not. The provincial office simply examines the papers and if they are in order, passes
them on to Lusaka. The result is simply to interpose a new layer in the process with no clear rationale
for its existence.
The program must also be examined carefully with a view not just to moving ministry
personnel physically closer to the land concerned but to reducing the number of steps involved where
possible, or at least never increasing the number of steps. To date, there is not a true decentralization
program.
While a presence at provincial level is obviously potentially useful, the shortage of trained
staff has inclined the ministry to think in terms of a regional solution. There is the beginning of a
regional office for the north in Ndola and one for the south in Kabwe. Before proceeding much further
there is a need to rethink the relationship among these offices and the head office and where final
decision-making will be located.
The issues involved are not simple. It would be convenient to selectively delegate final
decisions which are more complex or technically demanding than others to lower-level officials. But
there are also compelling reasons why the authoritative records of those final decisions need to be
maintained at one level, to permit easy cross-referencing and communication among the decision-
makers. Some possible approaches are suggested in section XI below.
° The Ministry of Lands in late 1993 authorized the Lands Department to double the size of its staff in order to carry
out the decentralization.