scholarly journals Local Government Finance in Ghana: Disbursement and Utilisation of the MPs share of the District Assemblies Common Fund

2013 ◽  
pp. 90-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nana Nimo Appiah-Agyekum
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Chief Executive ◽  
Common Fund ◽  
Local Government Finance ◽  
Members Of Parliament ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
District Assemblies

The establishment of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) in 1993 and concomitant percentage set aside for Members of Parliament (MPs) in 2004 aims to support local governments and legislators in pro-poor development activities in their communities and constituencies. In spite of the importance of the MPs’ share of the District Assemblies Common Fund (MPsCF) in financing local level development in Ghana, very little is known about monitoring systems and procedures on the disbursement and utilization of the funds. The study therefore assessed qualitative data derived from interviews with officials from selected Local Government Authorities (LGAs) as well as other key stakeholders in the disbursement and utilization of the fund. The study findings point to the absence of legislative instrument on the management of the MPsCF. Further, monitoring of the fund was a responsibility shared by the LGAs and other external stakeholders. Finally, the effectiveness of monitoring the disbursement and utilization of the MPsCF was strongly influenced by the relationship between the Chief Executive of the Local Government Authority (LGCE) and MPs in the local government area.

Quantifying the relationship between predisaster mitigation spending and major disaster declarations for US states and territories

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-347
Author(s):  
Katharina Renken, PhD ◽  
Andrea M. Jackman, PhD ◽  
Mario G. Beruvides, PhD, PE
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Disaster Mitigation ◽  
Major Disaster ◽  
National Implementation ◽  
Disaster Declarations ◽  
Proactive Measures ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Relationship

Since the Stafford Act of 1988, the process of obtaining a formal Major Disaster Declaration has been codified for national implementation, with tasks defined at the smallest levels of local government up to the President. The Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA 2000) placed additional requirements on local government to plan for mitigation activities within their jurisdictions. The goal of DMA 2000 was to not only implement more mitigative actions at the local level, but also initiate a process by which local governments could set up ongoing conversations and collaborative efforts with neighboring jurisdictions to ensure continuous, proactive measures were taken against the impacts of disasters. Based on the increased attention paid to mitigation and planning activities, a reasonable expectation would be to see a decline in the number of major disaster declarations since DMA 2000. However, simple correlation analysis shows that since DMA 2000, the number of major disaster declarations continues to increase. This article is intended as a preliminary study to encourage more detailed analysis in the future of the impacts of federal policy on local-level disaster prevention.

scholarly journals Fiscal Impacts of Changes in Population for Nonmetropolitan Areas of the Northeast

1978 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
William F. Fox ◽  
Patrick J. Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Local Government Finance ◽  
Nonmetropolitan Areas ◽  
Fiscal Impacts ◽  
Local Government Expenditures ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Specific Concern

The recent reversal in the intraregional migration into non-metropolitan areas has generated a great deal of interest in the problems of local government finance. Of specific concern are the changes in local government expenditures and revenues that have accompanied population growth and decline and related shifts in population composition in nonmetropolitan areas of the Northeast. Using a supply and demand framework, it is argued that the approach used in previous studies of examining the relationship between growth rates and various fiscal variables leads to biased inferences regarding the impact of growth. By analyzing the impacts of changes in the socioeconomic make-up of the population which often accompany growth and decline, the study increases the understanding of fiscal strains on local governments resulting from population shifts.

The Politics of Decentralization in Ghana’s Fourth Republic

2014 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Debrah
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Chief Executive ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
Rural Districts ◽  
Fourth Republic ◽  
District Assemblies

Abstract:This article assesses how the District Assemblies in Ghana’s Fourth Republic have exercised political, administrative, and fiscal powers transferred to them by the central government. It notes that the creation of the assemblies has promoted popular participation and boosted the autonomy of front-line officials in terms of decision-making and the allocation of financial resources at the local level. However, the central government retains the authority to appoint the District Chief Executive and 30 percent of the assembly members. Local governments experience delays in the transfer of funds, an inability to absorb civil servants of decentralized departments into the local culture, and a lack of capacity to raise revenue for development. The article argues that local election of the District Chief Executive and increased allocation of funds to the rural districts would attract entrepreneurs and skilled civil servants who would be able to implement effective decentralization.

scholarly journals Participatory monitoring and evaluation in local government: a case study of Lambussie District, Ghana

2021 ◽  
pp. 40-55
Author(s):  
Bernard Afiik Akanpabadai Akanbang ◽  
Anass Ibn Abdallah
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Participatory Monitoring ◽  
Local Government Level ◽  
District Assemblies

Ghana has pursued decentralisation since 1988, but its implementation continues to face challenges. Participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) is one of the tools that can help local governments to be more effective in the planning and management of development projects. However, the issues involved in implementing PM&E in rural local governments operating within a rapidly changing sociocultural and political environment have not been sufficiently explored. To fill this gap in knowledge, this paper draws on project and policy documents and primary data on the application of PM&E in District Assemblies’ Common Fund projects implemented between 2013 and 2017 in Ghana’s Lambussie District. Six key informant interviews were held with district- and regional-level stakeholders, and eight focus group discussions were undertaken at the community level. The research found that inadequate provision for operationalising PM&E at the local level, and lack of accountability and feedback mechanisms, resulted in a tokenistic approach to PM&E. The authors suggest that research and advocacy on mechanisms for holding district authorities accountable is vital to the success of future PM&E initiatives at local government level.

scholarly journals Bottom-Up Initiatives Undertaken by Local Governments to Support Entrepreneurship

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (19) ◽  
pp. 6328
Author(s):  
Niki Derlukiewicz ◽  
Anna Mempel-Śnieżyk ◽  
Tomasz Pilewicz ◽  
Małgorzata Godlewska
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Final Energy Consumption ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activities ◽  
The Relationship

The present paper deals with issues related to activities undertaken by local government. The article focuses on the identification and assessment of the significance of local government’s different bottom-up initiatives that support development of local entrepreneurship. The article also indirectly discusses the importance of activities referring to energy efficiency. Through the digitization process and by using digital tools, LGs realize projects, improve local actors’ awareness, and finally achieve new challenges such as a higher proportion of gross final energy consumption being from renewable sources. The aim of the paper is to present the relationship between the LGs’ entrepreneurial activities, which we call bottom-up initiatives, and the local entrepreneurship level, understood as the number of entrepreneurs active on the territory of a LG. This paper presents the results of research carried out on the bottom-up initiatives undertaken by Polish local governments to support entrepreneurship. The research was based on survey and statistical tools and stepwise regression analysis. In the paper, bottom-up initiatives undertaken by local governments (such as organizing events at the national or regional scale that enable networking among entrepreneurs or establishing departments for supporting local entrepreneurship that offer cooperation with local entrepreneurs) were found to influence the number of entrepreneurs active in local government territories. The paper concludes that local governments and their bottom-up activities are an important factor influencing local entrepreneurship development. The presented research results have implications for policy makers and may be useful for local governments in Poland and in other countries in the context of supporting entrepreneurship by undertaking bottom-up initiatives at the local level.

Spatial and Institutional Analysis of the Voivodships Expenditure on Culture in the Years 2003 – 2015

e-Finanse ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 67-75
Author(s):  
Adam Mateusz Suchecki
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Institutional Analysis ◽  
The State ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Location Quotient ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
National Heritage

AbstractFollowing the completion of the process of decentralisation of public administration in Poland in 2003, a number of tasks implemented previously by the state authorities were transferred to the local level. One of the most significant changes to the financing and management methods of the local authorities was the transfer of tasks related to culture and national heritage to the set of tasks implemented by local governments. As a result of the decentralisation process, the local government units in Poland were given significant autonomy in determining the purposes of their budgetary expenditures on culture. At the same time, they were obliged to cover these expenses from their own revenues.This paper focuses on the analysis of expenditures on culture covered by the voivodship budgets, taking into consideration the structure of cultural institutions by their types, between 2003-2015. The location quotient (LQ) was applied to two selected years (2006 and 2015) to illustrate the diversity of expenditures on culture in individual voivodships.

scholarly journals A New and Reinvigorated Research Agenda for U.S. Local Governments

2021 ◽  
pp. 0160323X2199163
Author(s):  
Ann O’M. Bowman ◽  
Domonic A. Bearfield ◽  
Stefanie Chambers ◽  
Beverly A. Cigler ◽  
Arnold Fleischmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Intergovernmental Relations ◽  
Social Equity ◽  
Local Government Finance ◽  
Local Government Management ◽  
Vantage Points

This essay offers a perspective on a new and reinvigorated research agenda for the study of U.S. local governments. It reports on the ideas and reflections of a set of local government scholars with different vantage points and varied substantive interests. Seven paramount themes or directions for a research agenda were identified, all of which contain numerous threads and thrusts: local government finance and economic development, local government management, intergovernmental relations, collaboration, public engagement, social equity, and institutional design. The essay offers some reasons for optimism about the future of U.S. local governments while also identifying cause for concern.

scholarly journals BUDGET TURBULENCE AND BUDGET DEVIATION: DO LOCAL GOVERNMENT HAVE THE ABILITY TO REDUCE THEM?

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Eva Herianti
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Government Programs ◽  
Regional Budget ◽  
Sensitivity Tests ◽  
Least Square Approach ◽  
Enhance Efficiency ◽  
The Relationship

The purpose of this study is to examine and analyse the effect of local governments’ ability on the relationship between budget turbulence and budget deviation. The study sample uses the regional budget (APBD) report and realization of a number of districts/cities throughout Indonesia encompassing the 2014-2017 period, while the analysis covers the period from 2015-2017. This study uses the least square approach with EViews analysis tool version 10 to test the hypothesis. Result of the study shows that budget turbulence has a positive and significant effect on budget deviation. The result also shows that the capacity of local governments can reduce the influence of budget turbulence on the budget deviation. Sensitivity tests using proxies of local governments not sampled by the main test also show consistent results. Finally, sensitivity test by area category proves that for the three categories, mainly western, central, and eastern Indonesia, the results are consistent with the main test results. The contribution of this study to the policies of the local governments is aimed to enhance efficiency of spending and increase productive spending to support the priority of government programs and encourage efficient, innovative and sustainable financing while maintaining the investment climate. Through several of these alternatives, the local government can overcome the conditions of resource instability that can threaten the effectiveness of the implementation of various programs.

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN REGIONAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT FOR THE HANDLING OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Yurispruden ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 208
Author(s):  
Fahrul Abrori
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Financial Management ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Fiscal Decentralization ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Relationship

 ABSTRAKPandemi Covid-19 yang terjadi di Indonesia membuat pemerintah membuat kebijakan-kebijakan sebagai stimulus untuk menjaga kestabilan masyarakat dan perekonomian. Pemerintah pusat memberikan kewenangan kepada pemerintah daerah untuk mengelola keuangan daerah untuk menangani covid-19 di daerah masing-masing. Hal ini disebabkan karena pemerintah daerah lebih memahami kebutuhan daerahnya. Permasalahan yang diangkat Pertama, bagaimana hubungan Pemerintah Pusat dan Pemerintah Daerah dalam pengelolaan keuangan untuk penanganan pandemi Covid-19? Kedua, Apa peran Pemerintah Daerah dalam pengelolaan keuangan daerah untuk penanganan pandemi Covid-19? Menggunakan metode penelitian yuridis normatif dengan pendekatan perundang-undangan dan pendekatan konsep. Hubungan Pemerintah Pusat dan Pemerintah Daerah dalam Pengelolaan Keuangan untuk Penanganan Pandemi Covid-19 yaitu desentralisasi fiskal yang mana. Peran Pemerintah Daerah dalam Pengelolaan Keuangan Daerah untuk Penanganan Pandemi Covid-19 yaitu dengan melakukan refocusing kegiatan, realokasi anggaran, dan Penggunaan Anggaran Pendapatan dan Belanja Daerah.Kata kunci: Pemerintah Daerah, Pengelolaan Keuangan Daerah, Pandemi Covid-19 ABSTRACTThe Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia led the government to make policies as a stimulus to maintain the stability of society and the economy. The central government authorizes local governments to manage local finances to deal with covid-19 in their respective regions. This is because the local government better understands the needs of the region. The issue raised first, how is the relationship between the Central Government and Local Government in financial management for the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic? Second, What is the role of local governments in regional financial management for the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic? Using normative juridical research methods with statutory approaches and concept approaches. The relationship between the Central Government and Local Government in Financial Management for the Handling of the Covid-19 Pandemic is fiscal decentralization. The role of local governments in regional financial management for the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic is by refocusing activities, reallocating budgets, and using regional budgets.Keywords: Local Government, Regional Financial Management, Covid-19 Pandemic

Nature over Art: No More Local Finance

1953 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 461-477
Author(s):  
Rowland Egger
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
Intergovernmental Transfers ◽  
Government Finance ◽  
Absolute Increase ◽  
Local Finance ◽  
Local Government Finance ◽  
Four Score ◽  
The Absolute

In 1866 an uncommonly knowledgeable gentleman, Alexis de Tocqueville by name, wrote as follows: “Je pense que dans les siècles démocratiques qui vont s'ouvrir l'indépendence individuelle et les libertés locales seront toujours un produit de l'art. La centralisation sera le gouvernement naturel.” Four score and five years later a distinguished compatriot documented the triumph of nature over art which de Tocqueville contemplated as a possibility, and analyzed at some length the instrumentality through which le gouvernement naturel has established its primacy over les libertés locales. Professor Jean Boulouis has recently pronounced a plaintive requiem for French local self-government culminating in these words: “On pourrait presque avancer, sans beaucoup d'exagération, qu'il n'existe plus de finances locales, mais tout au plus une localisation des finances nationales.”The two most striking phenomena of local government finance in recent decades are, first, the absolute increase in the amount of money disbursed by local governments, and second, the substantial expansion in the proportion of local government disbursements financed from intergovernmental transfers of funds—grants-in-aid, shared taxes, and various other devices by which money is shifted from one level of government to another.

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