Political decentralization and decision making process: Experiences from Temeke municipal council
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Date
2017
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Mzumbe University
Abstract
This study investigated political decentralization and decision making process at Temeke Municipal Council. Specifically the study examine the decision making process; to explore the extent to which the government support political decentralization; and to identify factors hindering decision making process. The data were collected through interview schedules, questionnaire and review of documents. The collected data were analysed using thematic content analysis for the qualitative data while the quantitative data were analysed using SPSS and Microsoft excel. The findings indicated that, the majority 51 (58%) of the questionnaire respondents are not aware of the decision making process. In addition, the majority 68 (72.3%) of the questionnaire and interview respondents are not satisfied with the support from the government as the actual decision making is to a large extent controlled by the central government representatives. Furthermore, the data analysed in this report suggest that some governance indicators have significantly improved following the implementation of political decentralization. For example, there is evidence of increased electoral and civic participation, access to information, and trust of LGAs. The financial accountability of LGAs also appears to have improved, so does the participation of women and young people. Lastly, the study revealed a number of factors hindering decision making process like, political interference, inadequate fund, poor government supports, and lack of transparency, poor leadership and management in general and low education and citizen awareness. In view of these findings, it is recommended that civic education on political decentralization and decision making should be improved; the central government must develop effective revenue collection laws to ensure local governments have autonomy over fiscal resources, offer strong support to develop local revenue collection systems and attribute national funds to local governments on the basis of local government need. Last but not least, the central government should safeguard the roles and responsibilities of local government in the system of law.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the School of Public Administration and Management in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Master of Public Administration (MPA) of Mzumbe University.
Keywords
Decentralization, Decision making process, Political decentralization, Local Government Authorities, Community participation
Citation
APA