Local Government Reform Programs and Human Resource Capacity Building in Africa: Evidence from Local Government Authorities (LGAs) in Tanzania

Pallangyo, William Amos; Rees, Christopher J.

doi:10.1080/01900692.2010.514714

Cited by 19 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…As developing countries have different social, political and economic contexts (Hopper et al, 2008) and because public sector accounting research is context-specific Guthrie, 1992, 2008), lack of studies in this area constrains our understanding of how external auditing contributes to accountability in the LGAs. In summary, there have been few studies conducted on the Tanzanian LGAs, and these have focussed on issues such as decentralisation by devolution policy (Lameck, 2011;Massoi and Norman, 2009;Norman and Massoi, 2010), the local taxation system and fiscal capacity (Allers and Ishemoi, 2010;Fjeldstad, 2001), fiscal decentralisation (Fjeldstad and Semboja, 2000) and evaluation of the reform programmes undertaken within the LGAs (Pallangyo and Rees, 2010). There have also been a few empirical studies of LGAs in Tanzania, which generally established the relationship between accounting and accountability (Gasper, 2006;Mzenzi, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

External auditing and accountability in the Tanzanian local government authorities

Mzenzi

Gaspar

2015

Managerial Auditing Journal

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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore the contribution of external auditing to accountability in the Tanzanian local government authorities (LGAs). Design/methodology/approach -This paper uses content analysis of the external audit reports of the LGAs for the past ten years. Corroborative evidence was gathered through interviews with external auditors, councillors, Parliamentary Committee members and selected internal auditors of the LGAs. Findings -The study finds that external auditing had marginally contributed to the enhancement of accountability within the LGAs. This is mainly attributed to the limited scope and failure of the responsible officials to address audit recommendations. In the light of agency theory, the findings suggest that external auditing has not sufficiently enabled the stakeholders to hold LGAs' officials accountable. Practical implications -The findings indicate that external auditing can enhance accountability when the scope is widened to provide relevant information and also when audit recommendations are implemented by responsible officials. Originality/value -Most studies of external auditing and accountability have focussed on the developed countries; this is one of the few papers which explores the phenomenon in the context of emerging economies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

External auditing and accountability in the Tanzanian local government authorities

Mzenzi

Gaspar

2015

Managerial Auditing Journal

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“…Therefore, it is high time to find appropriate solutions regarding shortage of staff and transport facilities, as that problem has been documented and has persisted for an extended period. The responsible authorities could attach equal importance to, and ensure coherency of, district and village capacity building, using resources such as Local Government Capital Development Grants (LGCDGs) and locally available scholarships (Pallangyo & Rees, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community management and sustainability of rural water facilities in Tanzania

2013

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This paper addresses the question of whether community management in water service delivery affects the sustainability of rural water facilities (RWFs) at village level, in terms of their technical and managerial aspects, and what role capacity building of users and providers plays in this process. Empirical research was conducted in nine villages in the districts of Kondoa and Mpwapwa, in the Dodoma region of Tanzania. The results reveal that sustainability of RWFs is in jeopardy and that villages far from the District Council headquarters experience numerous technical and management problems. The national water framework does not clearly define the roles of the key actors at the district, village and household levels. District Water Departments do not have enough resources to render the services needed adequately and in a timely manner. In all the villages studied there were no local technicians trained for basic operation and maintenance. This implies that the concept of community management cannot be taken at face value; its actual meaning needs to be specified in order to offer a realistic and feasible option in the decentralization of rural water provision. With regard to capacity development, we recommend establishing workshops for clusters of villages to repair breakdowns and coordinate spare parts.

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“…In Tanzania, the Local Government Reform Program (LGRP) was introduced to improve among other issues quality of service provided by the local government (Mgonja & Tundui, 2012). However, a study by Pallangyo and Rees (2010) identified deficiencies in almost all local government associations (LGAs) in Tanzania. The study found lack of human capacity in terms of: required numbers of employees; lack of competencies and skills and educational qualifications; and failure by the LGAs' ability to attract and retain competent employees.…”

Section: Overview Of International Municipal Hrm Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of municipal employees’ perceptions of fairness in human resources management practices on motivation: evidence from a South African Province

Dzansi¹,

Chipunza²,

Dzansi³

2016

Problems and Perspectives in Management

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In South Africa, the problem of service delivery cuts across all municipalities as manifested by citizen protests across the country on almost daily basis. To mitigate the costs associated with the protests, the South African government has placed emphasis on the role played by human resources management through instituting legislative frameworks, such as the the White Paper on Human Resource Management in the Public Service (1997). Despite this effort, the human resource management practices of municipalities continue to be criticized, by both municipal internal staff and citizenry. Service delivery in the South African context is regarded as one of the cornerstone indicators of how the government affords its citizens access to quality life as enshrined in its constitution. This paper is one of the studies based on the South African context attempting to explain the problem of service delivery by looking at perceived fairness in human resource management (HRM) practices by employees of municipalities and how such perceptions affect their motivation to work. Using the tenets of the organizational justice theory, the authors hypothesize that perceived HRM practices of municipalities can be predictors of employee motivation. Quantitative data collected from employees of nine randomly selected municipalities in the Free State Province are used to create indices for the different HRM practices as well as employee motivation. Significant correlation tests are performed. Results show a positive correlation between perceived fairness in the HRM practices of municipalities and employees' motivation at .05 and .01 levels of significance. This means that fair HRM practices of municipalities promote employee motivation.

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Local Government Reform Programs and Human Resource Capacity Building in Africa: Evidence from Local Government Authorities (LGAs) in Tanzania

Cited by 19 publications

References 21 publications

External auditing and accountability in the Tanzanian local government authorities

External auditing and accountability in the Tanzanian local government authorities

Community management and sustainability of rural water facilities in Tanzania

Impact of municipal employees’ perceptions of fairness in human resources management practices on motivation: evidence from a South African Province

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