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Decentralization in Tanzania: An assessment of local government discretion and accountability
Author(s) -
Venugopal Varsha,
Yilmaz Serdar
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
public administration and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.574
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1099-162X
pISSN - 0271-2075
DOI - 10.1002/pad.556
Subject(s) - decentralization , accountability , discretion , local government , transparency (behavior) , central government , tanzania , revenue , public administration , politics , harmonization , economics , government (linguistics) , public economics , economic policy , political science , business , accounting , law , market economy , physics , socioeconomics , acoustics , linguistics , philosophy
A large part of the decentralization literature is fragmented along political, fiscal, or administrative lines. In this article we employ a diagnostic framework to draw these dimensions together in a coherent manner to focus on analyzing local government discretion and accountability in Tanzania. Tanzania seems to have a deconcentrated local government system with central appointees having large powers at the local level. Centrally‐funded mandates—such as constructing secondary schools—dominate local government plans and budgets. Central control over administrative functions has ensured that administrative decentralization is yet to occur. In the fiscal sphere, progress has been made in transparency and harmonization of transfers in the last 5 years but local governments still have some way to go in raising own revenues, being less reliant on transfers, and ensuring downward accountability. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.