CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Local governments form the third tier of government. The aim of creating local government is to decentralized government activities so that local governments which are nearest to the people will enable the people to participate in development process of their area. In other to ensure their constant existence local governments need to ensure that adequate controls exist over the transactions that funds are promptly and properly accounted for and all documents and records relating to the financial transactions are accurate and complete. There are increasing demands on and expectations of the local government councils in Nigeria, while their revenue continues to be mismanaged. To prevent this trend and for significant objectives to be achieved in the new millennium there is need for proper harnessing, management, control and accountability of funds available to the councils. In addition constitutional mechanisms to autonomy, abolition joint accounts and development countries. In this analysis Igbo-Etit local government is our case study. Obviously we have been compelled by limited resource to confine this review to one out of the 774 local government in Nigeria and this forms the fulcrum of this review. Moreover the fact that this work is an academic project with its peculiar characteristics and scope make this choice quite germane. Furthermore, the finance available to the local government is very low and if specified objectives are to be achieved there must be proper harnessing of this resources, therefore must be proper control of revenue generated and proper accountability of funds available to them. I equally looked at local government sources of revenue, the manner and eective collection and disbursement of funds.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS
The main targets of this study is to determine the followings:
i) Whether the financial management procedures carried out in local government are adequate and effective in meeting the objective of the local government.
ii) Whether laid down control procedures are complied with.
iii) To identify the major problems methodology in the implementation of financial administration procedures.
iv) Sources of council revenues and expenditure and most importantly the control and accountability of council revenues among others.
v) To identify measures which could assist Igbo-Etiti local government to achieve its results.