Management of the State Joint Local Government Account and the Challenges of Service Delivery in Kaduna and Gombe States (1999 – 2011).
ABSTRACT
Fiscal federalism emphasizes the need to share the functions and finances of the public sector between the federal and sub-federal units of a country. This is done to enable each unit of government to provide goods and services in areas of their competence. However, fiscal federalism, as it is practised in Nigeria, has brought some challenges to the local governments in their service delivery to the people in their jurisdictions especially in the area of federal allocations to local governments which are channelled through the State Joint Local Government Account.
The State Joint Local Government Account is a constitutional creation that pools the statutory allocations of all local governments in a State together for onward distribution by the State to its local governments. The Account has been a recurring decimal in both the 1979 and 1999 Constitutions and the problems that have been associated with the conception and management of the Account have lingered. Principal among these are State’s refusal to contribute their share into the Account, abuse and mismanagement.
The idea of the Joint Account itself is an exercise in revenue sharing which is common to all federal arrangements and even unitary systems. The local government is the closest tier of government to the people in Nigeria, yet the population in it is denied the benefits of its existence. The failure of the local governments in the area of service delivery has made the citizens to lose trust in government as an institution.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration – – – – – – – – ii
Certification – – – – – – – – iii
Dedication – – – – – – – – iv
Acknowledgement – – – – – – – v
Abstract – – – – – – – – ix
Table of Contents – – – – – – – x
List of Tables – – – – – – – – xiv
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study – – – – – 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem – – – – – 6
1.3 Research Questions – – – – – 13
1.4 Objectives of the Study – – – – – 14
1.5 Hypotheses – – – – – – – 15
1.6 Significance of the Study – – – – – 15
1.7 Scope and Limitation of the Study – – – – 18
1.8 Definition of Key Terms – – – – – 19
1.9 Organizational Structure of the Study – – – – 20
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 Introduction – – – – – – – 22
2.2 Literature Review – – – – – – – 22
2.2.1 Fiscal Federalism – – – – – – – 28
2.2.2 Conceptual Issues in Local Government – – – 33
2.2.3 Local Government in Nigeria: A Historical Perspective – 41
2.2.4 Assignment of Functions – – – – – 48
2.2.5 Tax Assignment and Revenue Allocation – – – 52
2.2.6 Revenue Allocation – The Nigerian Experience – – 59
2.2.7 Review of Kaduna and Gombe States‘ Laws on the State
Joint Local Government Account – – – – 68
2.2.7 Local Government Service Delivery – – – – 73
2.2.8 Local Government Service Delivery and the Politics of
State Joint Local Government Account – – – 75
2.2.9 Corruption and Service Delivery – – – – 86
2.2.10 Review of Theories – – – – – – 94
2.3 Theoretical Framework – – – – – 108
2.4 Relevance of the Theory to the Study – – – – 110
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction – – – – – – – 114
3.2 Research Design – – – – – – – 114
3.3 Types of Data – – – – – – – 115
3.3.1 Primary Source – – – – – – – 116
3.3.2 Secondary Source – – – – – – – 116
3.4 Instruments of Data Collection – – – – 117
3.4.1 Questionnaire – – – – – – – 117
3.4.2 Interview – – – – – – – 118
3.5 Population, Sample Size and Sampling Technique – – 119
3.6 Methods of Data Presentation and Analysis – – – 127
3.7 Justification for the Method of Analysis – – – 129
CHAPTER FOUR
THE MANAGEMENT OF THE STATE JOINT LOCAL GOVERNMENT
ACCOUNT IN NIGERIA
4.1 Introduction – – – – – – – 130
4.2 Federalism and Fiscal Federalism in Nigeria: An Overview 131
4.3 The State Joint Local Government Account – An Appraisal 135
4.4 Inter-governmental Fiscal Relations in Nigeria – – 136
4.5 Tax Sharing – – – – – – – 138
4.6 Revenue Sharing and Nigerian Local Governments – 141
4.7 The State Joint Local Government Account: A Recurring
Decimal, A Recurring Problem – – – – 143
4.8 Matters Arising on the Joint Account Under the Present
Dispensation – – – – – – – 147
4.9 The Politics of Local Government Autonomy and the
Operation of Joint Account – – – – – 153
4.10 Local Government Finance in Nigeria – – – 161
CHAPTER FIVE
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
5.1 Introduction – – – – – – – 170
5.2 Data Presentation – – – – – – – 172
5.3 Data Analysis and Interpretation – – – – 173
5.4 Hypotheses Tested – – – – – – 218
5.5 Discussion of Findings – – – – – – 230
CHAPTER SIX
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
6.1 Introduction – – – – – – – 233
6.2 Summary – – – – – – – – 233
6.3 Conclusion – – – – – – – – 236
6.4 Recommendations – – – – – – 237
BIBLIOGRAPHY – – – – – – 240
INTRODUCTION
The relative roles of the three tiers of government—the federal, the state, and the local government authorities (LGAs)—in public service delivery have emerged as one of the most important topics of open and vigorous debate in the new democratic climate in Nigeria.
There have been increasing calls for intergovernmental fiscal relations to be reassessed in light of a widespread belief that although the states and LGAs are assigned primary responsibility for the delivery of basic public services, they are not equipped with adequate revenue resources to fulfill their expenditure obligations because bulk of government revenues is retained by the federal government.
The discussion is overwhelmingly centered on the revenue sharing formula that allocates resources from the Federation Account amongst the three tiers of government—currently 48.5 percent of the resources are transferred to the federal government, 24 percent to the state governments, and 20 percent to the LGAs. The sub-national tiers of government are now demanding that their respective shares be substantially increased.
However, there is palpable lack of studies or discussion on whether the current practice of placing local governments’ statutory monthly allocations in 2 a Joint Account largely controlled by state governments is such that a mere shift in resource allocation will achieve the desired objective of delivering better services to the majority of Nigerians.
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Akpa, P. A. (2013). Assessment of Local Governments in Nigeria’s
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Ibadan. Oluben Printers.Anyanwu, J. (1999). Fiscal Federalism Among the Various Tiers of
Government in Nigeria. In: The Nigerian Economic Society. Ibadan.Appadorai, A. (1975). The Substance of Politics. New Delhi, Oxford
University Press, 11th Edition.Bello-Imam, B. L. (2007). Local Government in Nigeria: Evolving a ThirdTier of Government. Ibadan. Heinemann Educational Books Plc.
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StudentsandScholarship Team.