Impact of state joint local government account (SJLGA) on the capacity of some selected local government councils in Borno state to execute capital projects

Abstract

The creation of State Joint Local Government Account (SJLGA) was primarily to serve as a medium through which funds from the federation account are disbursed to local governments for developmental purposes. However, in spite of increased efforts through allocation there are still major gaps to be filled in the area of service delivery at the local government level. The study adopted the survey research where both primary and secondary data were sourced. Data were presented on tables using frequency counts and simple percentages. A total of 800 questionnaires were administered randomly on respondents out of which 400 to local government staff and 400 to community leaders, 353 for community leaders and 344 from local government staffs were retrieved as valid and used for data analysis. Meanwhile, Spearman Rank order, an inferential statistical tool was used to test the hypotheses. The study revealed that the operations of joint account has not significantly improved the performance of local governments in the execution of capital projects in key areas of primary health care, primary education, agriculture and rural infrastructure. The study concluded that State Joint local government account has not significantly improved the performance of selected local government councils in service delivery in Borno state. It was recommended among others that State Joint local government account should be scrapped so as to ensure financial autonomy of local governments in Borno state. It is only then that service delivery can be greatly improved at the local government level.