A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Award of Masters Degree of Public Administration of Mzumbe University 2015This study explored the performance of centralized and decentralized recruitment and selection and allocation of LGA staff in Tabora municipality. The main research question focused on bringing out information on how decentralized and centralized recruitment and selection are performed, how does the practice of policies and guideline which govern recruitment and selection of local government employees affect fairness, efficiency and effectiveness of recruitment and selection in Tabora municipality, and whether corruption, low skills capacity of local councilors and administrators affect performance of recruitment and selection. The study employed a qualitative and quantitave approach involving a case study design, where employees who participated belonged to Tabora municipality councils. A total 60 respondents were obtained from seven different work departments in the council including secondary educational, health, accountancy, human resource, legal and agricultural and livestock development. The municipality director was involved as employer. Purposive and random sampling procedures were used to select respondents. Interview, questionnaire and focus group discussion provided largely qualitative data. Before the analysis data filtering, mind mapping with idea of eliminate irrelevant data were done. Moreover data codification and classification was done. The data were processed and analyzed manually. Furthermore quantitative data was analyzed in form of numerical values accompanied with tables in addition simple calculation were done to obtain the number and percent of respondents who agree on the same issue moreover some data from interview and focus group discussion were analyzed through narratives analysis and conversational analysis. Findings revealed both decentralized and centralized recruitment and selection procedures were in operation for placing employees in Tabora municipality. Specialized high cadre employments were centrally recruited while low cadres were recruited under decentralized system. The decentralized recruitment and selection under LGA were influenced by nepotism, corruption and low skills capacity of administrators and councilors that led to poorly qualified employees to access position in the councils and finally hindered decentralized recruitment. However, both methods were marked by advantages and disadvantages. The study therefore recommends a combination of both methods in any one recruitment and selection procedures to resolve inefficiencies observed thereof.