An investigation into factors that hinder municipal council of Mombasa from utilizing its finances effectively for sustainable service delivery

Abstract

The Kenyan Government is concerned with service delivery, proper financial management and accountability to its citizen. In line with this, the Chief executive officers of the Central Government and Government agencies are required to sign the performance contract, including in the ministry of Local Government. The performance contract is an agreement between the government and a manager of a public institution specifying expected levels of performance to be achieved. Currently, all public institution including Mombasa Municipal Council have come up with citizen's service delivery charter, a document that outlines the services they provide and the time it takes to deliver them. According to the Memorandum on Commission of Enquiry for City Status for Mombasa (2005), it was discovered that the council does not offer adequate and quality services in the following areas: - Street lighting, sewerage systems on the island and all mainland areas, storm water drainage system, access roads, way leaves for drainage and infrastructure on the mainland and housing among others. According to the Municipal Council of Mombasa annual report (2006) there are a number of shanties such as TudorMoroto and Bangladesh, and unauthorized structures that are mushrooming within the municipality as a result of inadequate provision of housing for low-income groups. The Public health department has also shown concern about the unhygienic conditions prevalent in most of the council's markets and canteens. The survey conducted by the Mombasa Municipal Council (2006) indicated that the council's performance was below the expectations of its stakeholders. Both internal and external stakeholders concurred on the overall performance level of the council with 25% of the respondents ranking the performance as good and 75% ranking the services as unsatisfactory or unacceptable. This study therefore, sought to investigate factors that hinder the Municipal Council of Mombasa from utilizing its finances effectively for sustainable service delivery. The target population for the study comprised of the Mayor of Municipal Council of Mombasa, Chairmen of thirteen committees of the policy arms of the council, heads of eleven departments of the executive arm of the council and twenty councillors who were not chairmen totaling to forty five respondents. The study employed census (total population strategy). The data was collected using self administered questionnaires where 95% response rate was achieved. The primary data was checked for consistency and coded in SPSS computer software then both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. Correlation analysis, Chi- square test and factor analysis were performed, which enabled for the determination of factor significance, factor relationships and factor correlations at 95% level of significance. The results are presented using frequency tables, graphs and charts and the findings described using MS- word.