Challenges of Municipal Finance in Ghana: A Case Study of Tema Metropolitan Assembly

Abstract

The study focused on the challenges of municipal finance in TMA. The study analysed the sources of revenue, assessed the extent to which revenue generated are able to meet expenditure requirements, examined the constraints of revenue mobilisation and evaluated the management of financial resources in TMA. Purposive sampling was used to select two officers who had in-depth knowledge on the subject matter whilst simple random sampling was employed to select one hundred and one revenue collectors for the study. Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect primary data from respondents. Secondary data was also extracted from the financial statement of the Assembly just to mention a few for the study. The findings identified rates, lands, fees and fines, licences, rent, grants, investments and miscellaneous receipts as revenue sources of TMA. It revealed that total revenue mobilised from the IGF was low compared to grants and data bases on properties and businesses were inadequate resulting in loss of revenue. The findings also showed that TMA was not able to raise adequate revenue to finance its expenditure budget. Further, revenue mobilisation was encountering some challenges including inadequate logistics, absence of application of modern technology, low professional capacity of revenue collectors, low salary and inadequate public education on the need for rate payers to honour their financial obligations, among others. The findings again revealed that despite the systems established for controlling revenue and expenditure, TMA was not achieving revenue target whilst the re-current expenditure exceeded the approved budget for some periods. The study concluded that grants constitute a major share of TMA‟s total revenue, revenue data base on businesses were not up-to-date, revenue generation must be improved, challenges encountering revenue mobilisation should be addressed and TMA should tighten its revenue and expenditure control system.