ABSTRACT
The extent of the powers of subnational government entities depends on history, customary forms of local administration, and the nature of post-independence leadership. In 1999, a major decentralization reform virtually replaced the entirety of the previous system, bypassing the provinces and giving greater authority, political power, and financial resources directly to lower government levels and municipalities. Also, "decentralization" has been abused to apply to very different actions, e.g., outsourcing functions to non-governmental organizations, forms of alternative service delivery, and even privatization. The degree of decentralization can be measured by the extent of autonomy from the central government, which increases from "deconcentration" through "delegation" to full "devolution". Deconcentration reallocates the administrative workload from central government offices to subordinate field staff in the regions and provinces – for example, when a central ministry of public works sets up a field office for road maintenance in a local area.
