Report Types
 
Individual versus Comparative Reports. This website allows the user to generate two types of monitoring reports for local budget summaries: individual council reports (to view one council's financial data), or comparative reports (to compare financial data from several councils).

Fiscal Years and Reporting periods. Since July 1, 2004, all local government budgets are synchronized with the central government's financial year (FY). The Tanzanian financial year runs from July 1 through June 30. For each budget year, the first 'reporting period' only contains budget plan data (for example, 'Budget FY 2005/06'). When you select a 'Budget' reporting period, all budget execution amounts will be reported as equal to zero.

While Treasury disbursements are reported on a monthly basis, LGA Finance Statistics are reported on a quarterly basis. Each fiscal year has four subsequent reporting periods for which the (cumulative) actual amounts may be reported:
 

Identifying Regions and Local Government Authorities
 
Numeric Identifiers for LGAs. Each Local Government Authority (LGA) in Tanzania Mainland is assigned a unique numeric identifier by the Ministry of Finance (referred to as 'Vote Code'). This identifier consists of six digits: the first two digits are a region identifier, the next digit identifies whether the council is either urban ('2') or rural ('3'), while the last three digits identify each LGA within that region. For instance, the Vote ID for Bagamoyo District Council in Pwani (Coast) Region is 713008, where '71' identifies Pwani Region, '3' indicates a rural district, while '008' identifies the council within the region.

Region codes. On this website, local government authorities are generally sorted alphabetically, rather than by region. However, the first two digits of each LGAs Vote Code reveal in which region they are located. Regional subtotals are identified in online reports by the region code (e.g., '71') plus '9999'. Totals for Mainland Tanzania are identified by '999999'. The region codes (budget votes) assigned to the 21 regions in Tanzania Mainland can be found on the regional map for Tanzania Mainland.

New Councils. A number of new local government councils were created in 2005 and included in the budget for FY 2006/07. These new districts include Kilolo (Iringa Region), Mvomero (Morogoro), Namtumbo (Ruvuma), Kishapu (Shinyanga), and Kilindi (Tanga). Requesting reports for new districts for reporting periods prior to the year of their inclusion in the budget may either display no data (e.g., a blank table) or generate an error.

Data Sources
 
Data Sources. Data for the monitoring reports is taken from various data sources:

Population Data and Per Capita Amounts. Population data (used for computing per capita amounts) are based on the Census of Population 2002 data. For information purposes, monitoring reports for individual councils will provide the estimated population of each LGA as a footnote. As agreed by the Local Government Finance Working Group, population variables are inflated uniformly across all LGAs by 2.9 % per annum for comparing local government finances.

LGA Performance Measures and Audit Data
 
LGA Performance Assessments. As a condition for receiving funds from the Local Government Capital Development Grant system, each council undergoes an annual performance assessment. The performance assessment evaluates LGA performance based on nine categories. For online performance assessment reports, column headings (A - I) are identified as follows: A. Financial Management; B. Fiscal Capacity; C. Planning and Budgeting; D. Transparency and Accountability; E. Interaction between HLG and LLG; F. Human Resource Development; G. Procurement; H. Project Implementation, and ; I. Council Functional process. Scores within each category are determined based on points assigned for objective criteria. For instance, Financial Management is assessed based on 7 thematic areas, including Positions of Council Director and Treasurer; Final Accounts; Audit Reports; Financial Irregularities; Bank Reconciliation; Internal Audit; and Financial Reports.
 
LGA Audit Reports. A clean (or unqualified) audit opinion is issued on the financial statements audited when the Controller Auditor-General (CAG) is satisfied in all material respects that (a) the financial statements have been prepared using acceptable accounting bases and policies which have been consistently prepared; (b) the financial statements comply with statutory requirements and relevant regulations; (c) the view presented by the financial statements is consistent with the knowledge on the circumstances of the audited entity; and (d) there is adequate disclosure of all material matters relevant to the financial statements. A qualified opinion is issued when the CAG is not satisfied that the financial statements fairly reflect the results of operations and cash flows of the LGA, in which case he is obliged to qualify the audit report by referring to those material matters about which he has reservations. An adverse opinion is expressed if the there are such fundamental disagreements or limitation of scope that it undermines the position presented to the extent that a qualified opinion would not be adequate. In this case, the CAG takes the position that the financial statements are not fairly stated.

Using this Website
 
Viewing and Printing Monitoring Reports. Most comparison reports are presented in a wider format to accommodate more data in the tables. For optimal viewing of this page, set your screen settings to a resolution of 1024 x 768 or more. To print wider tables, choose the landscape setting under the 'Page Setup' option.

Performance Ratio Many tables include a measure referred to as the 'performance ratio'. The performance ratio indicates how budget implementation is performing when compared to the budget plan. As such, the Performance Ratio is defined as (actual amount / budget amount) * 100%.
 
If the budget is executed exactly as specified in the budget plan, the performance ratio at the end of the fiscal year should equal 100% for every budget line. Likewise, if the budget is executed exactly as specified in the budget plan, the cumulative performance ratio should equal 25%, 50% and 75% for Quarter 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Of course, in reality differences may arise between budget plans and executed amount due to virements and other budgetary changes.

Disclaimer and Release Notes
 
Disclaimer. While every effort is made for the data presented on this web site to be accurate, these reports are not authoritative. These reports are for information purposes only. Please report an error if a monitoring table fails to generate, the table is blank, or if the database malfunctioned. Please feel free to contact LGFWG if you have any questions or comments regarding this website.

Release Notes. In order to provide greater details on the LGA Finance Statistics and the Treasury disburement data provided on this website, the LGFWG will provide "release notes" for the data made available for every reporting period.