Decentralization In Madagascar

✍ Scribed by Fengler W. (ed.)

• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 114
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Decentralization in Madagascar is part of the World Bank Country Study series. These reports are published with the approval of the subject government to communicate the results of the Bank’s work on the economic and related conditions of member countries to governments and to the development community.This book takes stock of Madagascar’s first 10 years of decentralization. As it happened in many other developing countries, particularly in Africa, Madagascar’s decentralization process has seen reversals, uncertainties and lack of clarity all along. This explains why Madagascar, despite the experience with decentralization, remains a highly centralized country with only about 3-4 percent of expenditures spent below the center and with very few prerogatives decentralized to the local level.Notwithstanding the structural impediments to decentralization in poor countries, many positive lessons can be drawn from the Madagascar case which point to the potentials of the decentralization process. This study provides a detailed analysis of local government finances and develops a methodology for measuring local financing needs (local fiscal gap methodology). Based on this analysis, the study argues that a lot can be gained from simplifying administrative arrangements and fiscal relationships. Instead of a full-blown and ambitious decentralization strategy, this book suggests a number of reforms, which would go a long way by making the current structure work better. These reforms include: (i) a full transfer of the (limited) local competencies to commune, particularly local revenue collection; (ii) increasing transfers to rural communes so that per capita allocations would be the same across communes—rural and urban; and (iii) assigning revenues to one level of govern! ment only, except for some very specific types of taxes (such as on natural resources).

✦ Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS......Page 5
Abstract......Page 9
Acknowledgments......Page 11
Acronyms and Abbreviations......Page 13
Executive Summary......Page 15
1. Introduction......Page 21
The Legal Framework......Page 25
Deconcentration and Decentralization......Page 27
Control System......Page 32
2.3 The Control Framework......Page 33
Towards a More Service-oriented Administration......Page 35
The Fiscal Gap......Page 37
Expenditures......Page 39
Revenues......Page 44
3.4 Revenue Assignments in Madagascar......Page 49
Improving Madagascar’s Fiscal Framework......Page 55
4. Communes......Page 59
Institutional Arrangements at the Commune Level......Page 60
Measuring Commune Finance: Sample and Methodology......Page 63
4.3 Case Study of the Schools in the School District of Farafangana and Andilamena......Page 65
Commune Revenues......Page 67
4.7 Breakdown of Administrative Fees......Page 71
4.9 Functional Classification—Overview......Page 75
Annexes......Page 79
Annex A: Matrix of Policy Recommendations......Page 81
Annex B: Distribution of Ministerial Functions......Page 83
Annex C: Revenue Assignment in the 2000 and 2001 Budget......Page 87
Annex D: Deconcentration of Expenditures......Page 89
Annex E: The Local Financing Gap Methodology......Page 93
Annex F: The Representativeness of the 232 Commune Sample......Page 97
Annex G: Local Government Organigram......Page 101
Annex H: Local Government Revenue Assignments......Page 103
Glossary of French and Malagasy Terminology......Page 107
Bibliography......Page 109
2.1 Administrative Parallelism......Page 28
2.2 Personnel and Budget Functions in the Social Sectors......Page 31
3.1 Possible Expenditure Assignments by Level of Government......Page 40
3.3 Shares of Recurrent Expenditures Executed Below the Center......Page 41
3.3 Possible Revenue Assignments by Level of Government......Page 45
3.6 Transfers to Administrative Levels (in million FMG) in 2001......Page 52
3.7 Transfers to Commune Budgets (2001)......Page 53
4.3 Gap per Sector (US$ per capita)......Page 66
4.4 Revenue Composition of Urban and Rural Communes (estimated)......Page 68
4.6 Breakdown of Expenditures in Urban Communes and Communes in the Greater Antananarivo Area......Page 72
4.8 Economic and Functional Expenditures of Rural Communes......Page 73
4.8 Breakdown of Investments......Page 74
2.1 Madagascar ’s Territorial Administration......Page 30
3.2 Madagascar’s Revenues in the International Context—Government Revenues as a Share of GDP (excluding grants) 2001......Page 38
3.4 Social Sector Spending by Administrative Level......Page 42
3.5 Central Government Budgetary Revenue 1998–2000 (in % of GDP)......Page 48
3.6 Delay of Unconditional Transfers to Rural Communes (sample of 15 communes)......Page 54
4.2 Data Sources......Page 64
4.5 Breakdown of Total Local Taxes......Page 70
2.1 The Intercommunal Association Fianarantsoa-Manakara......Page 34
3.1 Municipal Revenues in South Africa (2001)......Page 47
4.1 Local Development Planning (Plan Communal de Développement, PCD)......Page 61
4.2 Managing Local Security Issues in Uncertain Environments......Page 62
4.4 Social Funds and Decentralization—Moving Progressively Away from the Rural-Urban Divide?......Page 69