Decentralisation is now taking place in the public administrations of most countries of the world. A critical determinant of the effective performance of local governments is finance - their ability to both mobilise financial resources and to use those resources effectively and efficiently. This book explores the variety of methods used to ensure that fiscal decentralisation takes place alongside administrative decentralisation. It considers the range of revenue sources available, the design of systems of intergovernmental transfers between central and local government, and the kinds of rules and procedures necessary to ensure that local governments use their financial resources appropriately. The experiences described in the book will help local government managers, and national policy makers charged with local government finance issues, to ensure that they follow good practice in their own programmes of local government reform.
Introduction Financing local government by Munawwar Alam 1
Ch. 1 Decentralisation and the implications for local government finance by Nick Devas 11
Ch. 2 Revenue sources for local government by Nick Devas 23
Ch. 3 Local revenue administration by Nick Devas 41
Ch. 4 Financing capital investment by Nick Devas 50
Ch. 5 Innovative approaches to municipal infrastructure financing by Pritha Venkatachalam 60
Ch. 6 Intergovernmental fiscal transfers by Nick Devas 77
Ch. 7 Budgeting and expenditure management in local government by Nick Devas 89
Ch. 8 Accounting and auditing for local government by Simon Delay 101
Ch. 9 Building citizen participation and local government accountability by Nick Devas 109
Ch. 10 Local government and local government finance in England by Nick Devas 114
Ch. 11 The dynamics of fiscal decentralisation : the case of Ghana by Roger Oppong Koranteng 123
Ch. 12 Learning from Commonwealth experience by Munawwar Alam 133
Index 147