Political-Administrative Interactions Towards Effective Implementation Of The Construction Of Health And Education Infrastructures In Morogoro District Council, Tanzania

ABSTRACT

Political-administrative interactions in local governments have gained wide attention

among most development practitioners and scholars of public administration. Politicaladministrative

relations focus on the interaction and reciprocal relations between the

elected and appointed officials in performing local governments’ functions. Through

decentralization by devolution “D by D”, local governments have been mandated to

provide social services within their jurisdictions such as education, health, and clean and

safe water, among others. Implementation of construction of health and infrastructures

projects is one of the strategy used by local governments to ensure effective provision of

health and education services. Despite the efforts made by the government to construct

health and education infrastructures quality and adequacy of physical infrastructures of

health and education remain a challenge. The overall objective of this study was to assess

the contribution of political-administrative interactions to implementation of construction

of health and education infrastructure projects (classrooms, teachers’ houses, latrines,

laboratories, dispensaries and health centres) in Morogoro District Council, Morogoro

Region in Tanzania. The study specifically: (i) assessed the levels of interaction between

elected and appointed officials (ii) examined attitudes between elected and appointed

officials in the projects; (iii) analysed adherence to the principles of governance between

elected and appointed officials in projects implementation, and (iv) examined the

contribution of the interaction between elected and appointed officials in construction of

health and education projects in Morogoro District. The study adopted a case study

research design, and involved a total of 64 respondents that included elected and

appointed officials who were randomly selected. Qualitative data were collected through

Focus Group Discussions (FGD), Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and observation

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techniques while quantitative data were collected using a questionnaire survey.

Qualitative data were analysed through content analysis and categorised based on the

research objectives. Quantitative data were analysed using IBM Statistical Package for

Social Science (SPSS) Software by computing descriptive statistics employing

frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations. An interaction index was also

computed. The results from the interaction index revealed that there was moderate

interaction (65.6%) between the elected and appointed officials in implementation of

public development projects in Morogoro District Council. About one-fifth (20.3%) of the

respondents had low interactions while 14.1% had high interaction. On attitude, the

results indicated that 56.2% of respondents had negative attitude while 12.6% had

indifferent attitude and 31.2% had positive attitude towards their relationship in

implementation of the projects. It was, further, found that there was poor transparency at

68.8% and accountability (65.2%) between the elected and appointed officials in

implementation of projects, particularly on financial matters. The findings also showed

that the elected officials were not adhering to the rule of law compared to the appointed

officials; instead they were influenced by their political interests and partisan politics and

ignorance on the laws, policies and regulations. The findings indicated that good

relationship between elected and appointed officials facilitated mobilization of project

resources, increased public participation, improved trust, minimised conflict of interest

and ensured transparency and accountability in the projects. However, the study revealed

various challenges that affected their relationship in the projects. The challenges included

difference in the levels of education, distrust and conflicting interests, partisan and

political interference, and poor transparency and accountability. With regard to the results

of objectives one and two, it is concluded that inadequate monitoring of relationships

between elected and appointed officials in implementation of development projects by

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local government leads to moderate interaction and increases misunderstandings. From

the results that meet objective three, it is concluded that lack of transparency,

accountability and adherence to the rule of law among elected and appointed officials

jeopardizes compliance with governance principles in implementation of the projects. In

regard to the results on contribution to projects, it is concluded that positive relationships

between elected and appointed officials contributes much to effective implementation of

the said projects in the study area. Based on the conclusion drawn on the interaction

between elected and appointed officials, it is recommended that local government should

regularly conduct trainings on policies, regulations, and demarcation and monitoring of

officials’ interaction in implementation of development projects. In view of the

conclusion drawn from objective three, it is recommended that Morogoro District Council

should monitor adherence to governance practices among both elected and appointed

officials and provide trainings on policies, rule of law, and conducts that govern their

relations. It is also recommended that local governments should encourage collaborations

and partnerships between elected and appointed officials as advocated by complementary

model of political-administrative relations. Moreover, it is recommended that local

governments, through their own sources, should establish monthly allowances to

village/hamlet chairpersons and other elected officials. This will improve morale and

accountability of the elected officials to effectively implement development projects.