A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for Award of the Degree Master of Science in Accounting and Finance of Mzumbe University.
The Contribution of own source revenue in facilitating Development Projects in LGAs is serious problem that need measure to be taken to overcome the problem.
Strong population growth and demand for classrooms, dispensaries, and water wells, have both placed increased pressure on the delivery of infrastructure. In number of instances the delivery of this critical infrastructure has fallen to local government. Yet at the same time they have received less funding for implementation. Reduced grants and subsidies payments from other tiers of government together with increasing community requirements for services and facilities, has therefore seen local government look towards their own communities to rise the necessary funding.
The objective of the study was to find the contribution of own source revenue in facilitating the Development Projects in Local Government Authority. The study population was comprised by three ( 3 ) key personnel and five ( 5 ) head of departments.
The methods of data collection used were interviews, documentation and Observation. The interview method enabled the researcher to collect enough data from key personnel and Head of Department. Another method was documentation, through this, the researcher collect secondary data in the period of seven years and used another method of observation to observe the Development Projects constructed in seven years.
The findings obtained from the study showed that, The contribution of own source revenue in facilitating Development Projects in Songea Municipal Council in the period of seven years was 31% of total fund allocated to Development Projects and about to 9% of amount of fund collected by Songea Municipal Council.
The reasons that lead low contribution in Development Projects were:-Poor administration, Lack of commitment in implementation of budget, unrealistic of budget, management perception and availability of Capital Development Grants from Central Government.
The LGAs should be accountable in :-The change of method of collecting Own Source Revenue, Identification of another source of income, Introducing Laws and Regulations, Budgetary process, Reducing dependency from other tiers, Utilization of allocated fund
in Development Projects, Improvement of revenue collection through outsourcing the source of income and elimination of poor ideology among the management on Own source Revenue.