Effectiveness of cash management in local government authorities (IGAS) in Tanzania: a case of Kinondoni and Temeke municipals

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of Cash Management in Local Government Authorities (LGAs) in Tanzania: Kinondoni and Temeke Municipals being the case. Specifically the study focused on examining whether there are available qualified staff in LGA who are competent so as to help the control of cash effectively and efficiently, whether there are effective internal control procedures in cash receipts and disbursements in LGA, whether there are adequate procedures in collecting outstanding taxes in LGA, whether the above three factors, that is, availability of qualified staff, existence of internal control procedures, and adequate procedures in collecting taxes are statistically related to effective cash management, and finally, it examined the challenges faced by the LGA staff in managing cash effectively. The study was descriptive in nature and made use of primary data collected by way of survey from respondents from Temeke and Kinondoni Municipal councils in Dar es salaam region. The research targeted 32 respondents from the field in which 100 percent of response was achieved. Data was organized in tables and frequencies through the use of descriptive analysis. The findings show that the staffing level and internal controls has a strong relationship in effectiveness cash management.Moreever, it was seen that the LGAs have adequate procedures in collection of due taxes but only affected by the community which does not respond well to call for tax payment. The problems identified by the researcher include poor infrastructures and minimum number of qualified personals in Local Government Authorities (LGAs).The findings also showed that there are qualified staffs in LGAs who may contribute to the effective cash management. It is recommended that the Government should put more emphasis on the way the local taxes are collected so that the community to respond positively, not only that also the government should put more effort on plan, strategies and decision making process in order to bring about maximum results of their organization to be more effective in cash management like employment of staffs who are more competent to their job position. Generally the Government needs to build more capacity to provide and maintain local Government Authorities infrastructures in effective cash management.