The local government reform programme and budget transparent in district councils of Tanzania

Local Government Authorities were re-introduced in Mainland Tanzania in 1984 because of poor quality of services which were provided to the public by the Government. In Programmer 1998 the Government introduced the Local Government Reform (LGRP) in order to address the problems which constrained the performance of the Local Authorities; one of the problems was lack of transparency in the budget process. Transparency of the budget process is the heart of the reform because it leads to better design and results of fiscal policy (Baker et al, 2002). The study tries to establish how the Local Government Reform Programme has enhanced Fiscal Transparency in District Councils. The researcher has taken a case study paradigm by looking into the operations of Bagamoyo District Council. This case study has been conceived to address the issue of transparency of budget process within the context of the Local Government Authorities in Tanzania. The findings are very interesting; the study has revealed a low rate of awareness on the reform program especially for rural residents. Also the District Authority is too much dependent on Central Government allocations; as a result the District budget is unrealistic due to a high rate of budget deviation. These findings are likely to instigate a review in the entire budgeting process of Local Authorities. The researcher is recommending that, the District Council should build the capacity to generate adequate resources in order to be independent. Inadequacy of resources negatively affects the transparency of budget process.