A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Administrative Studies (DAS) DCC
for Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements of the Award of the Masters Degree of
Public Administration (MPA) of Mzumbe University.
This research analysed the participation of citizens in budgeting process in local
government in Tanzania a case of Ngara District Council in Kagera region. It was
conducted in Ngara to a total of 145 respondents where 103 were ordinary citizens,
and 42 were government officials namely 3 representatives of planning department, 2
representatives from the community development department, 7 ward Executive
officers, 14 village executive officers and 16 village chairpersons.
The findings from this research indicated that 92% of all respondents do not know
how the budget process of the village as well as local government is prepared and
86% have never participated in budget formulation at village level. The findings
indicate that there is a diversion from the process proposed by the guiding documents
including the guidelines from the ministry of finance and the actual process done by
the local government officials which exclude direct citizens’ participation in the
budgeting process for local government in Tanzania.
The research have determined factors that hinder citizens’ participation in budgetary
process that include formation of TUKI committee made by people between 4 to 6
have confiscated citizens constitutional rights to participate directly in the budget
formulation at village level. Another reason is the limited resources that in the local
government which makes it difficult to pay allowance for the days facilitators are in
the process of formulating the budget for the village.
The research has made recommendations for improving citizens’ participation at
village level where citizens can have direct participation in the budget. The
recommendations are focusing government, non state actors who can undertake some
interventions that can improve citizens’ participation in budgeting process. The
research concludes by suggesting further areas where study on citizens’ participation
in budgeting process can be conducted.