Chapter three: Democracy and good political governance hails the Basotho for being at the forefront of operationalising the constitutional monarchy in the African context. Public service performance and accountability 114. Whereas public service efficiency, effectiveness and accountability are generally perceived to be below average, the CRM was apprised of various policy initiatives aimed at correcting the situation. However, it was also acknowledged that there is inertia at all levels of the functioning of the public service. Policies are made, but are not always implemented or enforced; parliamentary bills take an inordinate amount of time before they are enacted; regional and international agreements and covenants are adopted, but are rarely domesticated into national law and are hardly ever implemented; local government councils barely function efficiently and effectively because of deficiencies in the system of decentralisation; there is still overcentralisation of state functioning; and nepotism and corruption appear to go unchecked. Public service accountability is generally acknowledged to be very weak. These persistent challenges limit the effectiveness of the efforts that are being made to improve public service performance and accountability. Promotion and protection of human rights 115. The CRM found that, even though various covenants associated with the promotion and protection of human rights and liberties have been signed, their domestication and implementation are, like service delivery, quite inefficient and ineffective. As a consequence, women, men, children, the youth, workers, the disabled and other vulnerable people are not able to enjoy their rights fully. Human capacity and institutional constraints were often blamed for this poor state of implementation. Ultimately, the inadequacy of national financial resources was recognised as the main culprit for rendering the good policy intentions unattainable. Challenges for democracy and good political governance 116. In conclusion, the encouraging gains with regard to democracy and good political governance, which include the consolidation of a constitutional monarchy, re-establishment of civil control over the military and police, electoral reforms, peaceful resolution of political disagreements leading to a negotiated compromise concerning the conduct of electoral competition, and the improvement in political inclusiveness and representativeness, are confronted with complex challenges. 117. There is the lingering threat of internal political conflict that might be fuelled by intraparty and interparty tensions that could distract government from its normal operations. Intraparty fissions manifest in member defections and further splintering of already weak opposition parties. In addition, SADC mediation to resolve interparty disagreements over the allocation of the PR seats for the 2007 elections has yet to be concluded. 118. There is a dominant executive branch of government, which is insufficiently countervailed by a weak Parliament and is not sufficiently held accountable by oversight institutions. The public service lacks capacity and is unable to deliver public services efficiently. Decentralisation is incomplete, suffers from capacity constraints and is characterised by debilitating tensions between the newly established councils and traditional authorities. Public accountability is problematic and there are growing concerns over creeping cronyism and corruption. 45