ABSTRACT

This study is on Government Revenue Generation, Mobilization and Monitoring at the Local Government Levels (A Study of Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State. The data for this study were obtained from two sources — primary source for primary data and secondary source for secondary data. Structured questionnaire was administered on the staff of Ikwuano L.G.A. to obtain the primary data. Literatures relating to the topic were reviewed as the base for the field work. The data obtained from the questionnaires returned were analyzed in tables with percentages while chi-square was used to test the hypotheses of this research. The following are the major findings of the study: Local Government Areas have not been effectively utilizing the various sources of internally generated revenue available to them. Local Government Revenue officers do not remit all the money they collect. There is a high level of state government interference with the local revenue. The greatest problem of LGAs in revenue generation is not the dishonesty of revenue officers. Local Government Revenue Committee set by the Government is not performing their roles effectively in ensuring reasonable revenue generation and utilization. Local Government Areas are mostly dependant on statutory allocation to the determinant of internally generated revenue. On the basis of the findings, the following recommendations were made: Local Government with a view to improving the internally generated revenue can be enlarging local revenue through identifying new and potential tax payers and rent payers, improving object data bases, improving valuation reassessment of the tax objects and calculating the revenue capacity for each type of levy. Local Government can intensity control on revenue to reduce leakages through surprise audit checks to complement self assessment procedure; improving the monitoring process, enforcing a strict and heavy penalty for defaulters and administer discipline to the staff that may have contributed to leakage in the local revenue. Local Government should also improve collection machinery through introduction of direct banking lodgment system and interacting with the banks to ensure proper monitoring. Local Government must in addition seek other sources of revenue by paying attention to the yield element which means the percentage contribution of a revenue source to the total revenue generated in the Local Government. Investment, savings are good source of revenue to Local Government to effect short-term liquidity.