THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF DAMBATTA LOCAL GOVERNMENT (1987 – 1991)

THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF DAMBATTA LOCAL GOVERNMENT (1987 – 1991)

ABSTRACT

In this country, the existing efforts in the process of development seem to have neglected the rural area, as most of the rural dwellers are facing problems due to the absence of socio-economic infrastructural facilities and services required for the improvement of their living standard. This therefore calls for redirecting attention towards embracing rural development for a balanced development between the urban and rural areas. Considering the fact that Local Government is a tier nearest to the people, there has been the belief that it can be an effective provider of services to the people. This was certainly what motivated and necessitated the enactment of the 1976 Local Government Reform and indeed the various modifications in local government administration for improving performance of the Local Government. However despite all this effort Local Government performance has not reached the expected level as there are a lot of rural communities lacking basic socio-economic amenities. Realizing above, this thesis appraises the performance of Dambatta Local Government with a view to establishing the extent of its developmental efforts and the problems it has faced in trying to provide services to the people. In doing so, the thesis takes into considera ion the fiscal and physical operations of the Local Government for the period 1987-1991. In order to aid the assessment, relevant data was collected, collated and analyzed. The data was collected from documents of the Local Government such as annual estimates, books of accounts on revenue and expenditures; National Development/Rolling Plan files; and Progress Reports and handing over notes files. Also, interviews and inspection visits to some places of local government projects and community development projects, were undertaken. Having assessed the performance of the Local Government, the following major findings have been established: a) The internal revenue of the Local Government for the period under review was low and this was one of the hindrances to pursuing more develop ment projects. b) The expenditures pattern of the Local Government emphasized too much on recurrent spending thereby reducing the Local Government ability to provide more development services to the people. c) The spread of projects executed by the Local Government, was not even as their concentration was on the center and few villages, neglecting most ol the rural settlements particularly those scattered. d) The Local Government lacked enough professional staff to support the delivery of its essential and basic services to the people. e) Even tr ough self-help groups in the area had executed some meaningful praveMS both the number of axecwad projects and that of registered selfhelp gioups fell much below the number of communities in the area. This therefore shows that much was desperately desired in respect of mobiliz ing people to participate in community development. Finally, bearing above in mind, the work has recommended that there should be concerted effort of redirecting management practices towards maximum utilization of available resources for a balanced development between urban and rural areas.

THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF DAMBATTA LOCAL GOVERNMENT (1987 – 1991)