Natural gas revenue utilization and community expectations a case of Kilwa and Mtwara district councils

The discovery of natural gas in Tanzania brought high hope and expectations to Tanzanians, especially in producing regions. Kilwa and Mtwara have hopes for quick social-economic development. But, this to be achieved needs the good control and management of the expenditure and saving of natural gas revenues and consistency working together of various government organs. The aim of this study was to analyze how the local government councils utilize the natural gas revenues for the benefit of the entire community to meet the expectations of stakeholders. The study adopted the mixed approach where qualitative and quantitative data were collected simultaneously. A total of 97 respondents were involved by administering semi-structured questionnaires, interviews, and the documentary review which were applied in both Kilwa and Mtwara district councils. The quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptive analysis; and, content analysis was applied for analyzing the qualitative data. The results revealed that both councils have been receiving natural gas revenues since the year 2012 through service levy from natural gas companies operating in their districts. But, there was a weakness on the control and management of expenditure of this fund. It was found out that much of it was spent on the recurrent account rather than on development. This is the result of a poor implementation of National Gas Policy (2013), National Energy Policy (2015) and Oil and Gas Revenue Management Act (2015). Hence, the government should create the environment of easy implementation of the relevant policies and laws in order to manage and meet the community expectations.