central government. The CRM saw this as one of the most frustrating aspects of local government capacity building for service delivery. 399. The apparent confusion over LGA personnel management comes from the conflicting government circulars and policy framework guidance from poorly synchronised sector-led and public service reforms. Yet, the LGRP of 1998 anticipated radical transformations in LGA personnel management whereby LGAs would employ their own staff. However, this regulation was subsequently overridden by the 2002 Public Service Act (as amended) that sought to unify the public service. This Act abolished previous LG HRM legislation. The President Office-Public Service Management (LG-PSM) became the authority to guide personnel management at the central level instead of the President Office for Regional Administration and Government Authorities (PO-RALG). The Act preserves central government powers to transfer staff across ministries, regions, and LGAs whenever it is in the ‘public interest’. This has led to a dual system of human resource management whereby, on the one hand, LGA began applying the 2000 Local Government Staff Regulations conferring autonomy to hire staff and, on the other hand, the 2003 Public Service Staff Regulations providing for the management of recruitment of local government staff from Dar es Salaam. In the specific sectors of education and health, front-line service delivery ministries were exempted from decentralised and merit-based recruitment procedures.This was to be done by the LGAs. 400. The CRM learnt that the ultimate goal of the LGRP in Tanzania is to ensure efficiency, equity and accountability in local public service delivery. Special emphasis is on the five sectors devolved to the local authorities in line with the decentralisation by devolution (D-by-D) policy and its subsidiarity principles. According to this policy, the role of central government to support, facilitate, monitor and ensure quality assurance was lessened, while local councils bear the ultimate responsibility for actual service delivery. The issue then becomes the extent to which the LGRP contributed to better service delivery, taking into account efficiency, equity and accountability criteria. 401. In the education sector, stakeholders in consultations with the CRM praised the achievements of the Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP). There were significant improvements in enrolment, quality, capacity building for teachers, and in facilitating partnerships between schools and civil society. Resources were decentralising and local government authorities at different levels given the means to improve services. This has led to quantitative improvements in primary education indicators such as the net enrolment rate which increased from 58.5 per cent in 2000 to 90.4 per cent in 2004. Gender parity is practically a reality and local communities have taken ownership and responsibility for primary education service delivery (URT, 2006). The CRM was informed that the goal was to further increase primary school enrolment from 90.4 per cent in 2004 to 99 per cent by 2010. However, stakeholders expressed concern that rapid increases in enrolment at all levels poses many challenges, including low quality education, inequality of access, gender issues, inadequate human resources, and unequal resource allocation across regions. The CRM found that in many of the districts visited, teachers could only be recruited by local authorities but the appropriate legislation did not exist nor was there central government support for this function. It is clear that resource scarcities at the local level reinforce the apparent lack of capacity. 402. Within the health sector, decentralised and participatory planning and service delivery was implemented within the LGRP framework since 2000. District councils have administrative, executive as well as legislative powers, and elected councillors sanction all council plans, budgets and regulations. Councils are responsible for service planning, management and delivery up to, and including, district hospital services. The Council Heath Management Team (CHMT) is at the centre of the budget. Central government block funds provide grants and district basket grants funded by donors come through sector budget support. Public sector health services are delivered through a typical pyramidal referral system, from the lowest level of a dispensary through referrals to health centres and district hospitals. The health service provision by voluntary agencies, faith-based organizations (FBOs), private sector and parastatals organisations are arranged through contractual arrangements with the district councils. This partnership has made health care relatively more accessible to citizens, with 40 per cent of all health facilities run by voluntary agencies that own 40 per cent of all hospital beds. 403. However, the CRM observes that the public sector health services also lack the human resources for effective service delivery to ordinary citizens. Many stakeholders in Ruvuma, Dodoma, Kigoma and Kagera described human resources in the health sector as being in a crisis mode over the past five years. The situation has been attributed to an inadequate polyvalent professional workforce, lack of staff training, an imbalanced approach to 91