The Roles of Financial Management Information System In Local Government Revenue Collection.

Abstract

In Tanzania, the Financial Management Information System has been in use since 1998, and it is one of the first systems of its kind in East Africa. It has proven to be very beneficial as a central payment, accounting, and reporting system, and it has been pushed out to all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), sub-treasuries, and Regional administrations, as well as numerous Local Government Authorities (LGAs) around the country. The study assessed the roles of financial management information system in revenue collection at Njombe District Council. The instruments used for data collection were questionnaire guide, interview and Focus Group Discussion. The study reached 94 respondents through questionnaire, 15 through interview and 5 through focus group discussion. Quantitative data was analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Science, supported with qualitative data. The findings revealed that financial management information system plays a vital role in revenue collection at Njombe District Council. But, there various challenges associated with implementation of the system which were poor infrastructure and working facilities, poor financial records, insufficient resources include skilled and professionalism, little acceptance of the officers to new introduced system and use the same revenue sources to increase fines, charges and fees to tax payers with little identification and mobilization of new sources. To solve the problem of poor revenue collection, the Central Government has to improve the performance of the financial management information system through infrastructure and working facilities. The Local Government; the Councillors, WEOs and VEOs to effective engage the community and create awareness for identification