Local government lacks skilled staff: CAG report

Dar es Salaam. The Local government Authorities (LGAs) can improve revenue collection only when they recruit the right number of skilled staff, according to the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) report.

The CAG, Prof Mussa Assad released a report for 2016/17 on performance of the LGAs recently.

Prof Assad said, in the year under review, the LGAs did not generate enough revenue to finance all its operations and projects due to shortage of skilled staff, instead, they continued to depend on the central government.

“There has been shortfalls in revenue management. The LGAs continued to perform below par in the area of revenue collection due to under capacity in debts collection, efficient revenue generation and debt collection strategies,” reads the report.

The CAG said a total of 185 LGAs failed to collect 17 per cent of their revenue targets as compared to 10 per cent in 2015/16 while revenue collectors continued to be noncompliant by failing to remit Sh3.5 billion.

The reasons for under performance in revenue management, according to the CAG, were shortage skilled staff, unpredictable economic climate and wanting revenue collection systems.

He said: “This does not only affect collection of debts, but also the ability to account correctly for debtors in financial statements.”

He went on to explain that the ability of local governments to deliver basic services to the community was also affected by insufficient cash flow and flailing economy.

The CAG suggests that the LGAs management should make radical improvement in revenue management, allowing participants in particular ministries and revenue collection agents to comply with the laid down laws and regulations.

“Further, I encourage LGAs to exploit all existing and potential revenue sources in order to improve collections and achieve their goals as planned. This will reduce dependency on the central government,” reads part of the report.