Local authorities’ independence level largely depends on the adequacy of the revenue part of local self-government budgets. One of the sources of income of local authorities is the payment of the ...population and business entities for services. Along with this, there is the issue of insufficient accumulation of revenues to the provincial budget due to non-payment of remuneration for services rendered. Municipalities are responsible for providing, regulating and managing essential services such as water supply, domestic wastewater treatment, electricity distribution, sewage systems and health services. This article summarizes the arguments and counter-arguments of the scientific discussion regarding municipalities’ problem in filling the revenue part of the local budget. The study’s primary purpose is to analyse municipalities’ financial capacity in the province of the Free State (Republic of South Africa). The systematization of literary sources and approaches to solving the problem shows that most municipalities in the Republic of South Africa face financial issues. Municipalities have liquidity problems or cannot fulfil their obligations on time. Despite these problems, municipalities must provide services at an acceptable level. The relevance of this scientific problem-solving is that it focuses on analyzing the financial difficulties faced by the Mangaung Metro Municipality. The primary data source for this study was the questionnaire results. The sample consisted of 24 employees and financial statements of municipalities and auditors’ conclusions. The municipality’s financing structure consists on average of 65% from internal revenues, 29.5% from state transfers and 10% from external borrowings. The financial capacity of the municipality is impaired due to an increase in the number of debtors, problems with cash flows, rising costs, unstable revenues to the revenue part of the budget, and an increase in short- and long-term debt. According to the survey results, 63% of respondents reported that the water supply sector is the largest source of debt among consumers, and the debt collection system could be more effective. The results may be helpful in municipalities with similar governance architectures. Thus, the municipality is recommended to develop and implement a strategy for increasing revenues, a cash flow plan, review the tariff policy, and implement an effective system of debt collection and cost reduction measures.
This paper analyzes the effects and limitations of green purchasing policy (GPP) developed by municipalities, using data from a survey conducted by the Ministry of the Environment. A cross tabulation ...of GPP and barriers to green purchasing suggests that the GPP mitigates problems caused by lack of staffing and manuals. In addition, the regression analysis reveals that not only declaring the promotion of green purchasing in the environmental policies of a municipality but also formulating its GPP increases the probability that employees will realize the direct effects of green purchasing. However, the estimation results do not suggest that the GPP increases the probability of measuring those effects. From this, we infer that the GPP is not effective in addressing one of the major barriers to promoting green procurement, the difficulty in understanding the effectiveness of green procurement.
Background: Illnesses impose a huge economic burden on individuals and families. Costly health care also discourages people from using health services thereby generating prolonged or worsened health ...problems. The recently endorsed National Health Insurance Policy forecasts the integration of all social health protection schemes thereby ultimately achieving universal coverage. The aim of this study was to find out the awareness of health insurance and evaluate source of information about health insurance.
Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on 385 participants from 5 randomly selected wards of Bhaktapur Municipality on July 2019. Households with health insurance were selected. The interview was taken either from the head of the family or the family member who takes financial decisions in the house. Face to face interview was taken in local language (Newari). Good and poor categories on awareness were developed. Descriptive statistics was applied.
Results: Good awareness of social health Insurance scheme was found among 335(87.2%) participants. 99% of the participants showed the importance of social health insurance. The main source of information was insurance agents (47.3%) and female community health volunteers (28.6%). Regarding benefits of opting health insurance, 66.5 % of the participants stated that it would reduce out-of-pocket expenditure. 65.5% opined that it would help in case of emergency medical situations. About 91.9% of respondents wanted to renew their health insurance in future also.
Conclusions: Awareness regarding health insurance was found good, which shows the positive acceptance of social health Insurance scheme by community. Insurance agent and hemale community health volunteers (FCHV) seemed to have played an important role in dissemination of information.
Keywords: Awareness; Bhaktapur municipality; health insurance
Introducción: La autonomía municipal en la elaboración y ejecución de estrategias de desarrollo local es fundamental para reducir la dependencia del poder central y promover soluciones a ...problemáticas económicas, sociales y ambientales a nivel comunitario. En este sentido, el fortalecimiento de las capacidades de gestión en cada municipio es crucial para impulsar iniciativas locales que aborden estas problemáticas de manera efectiva. Objetivo: Identificar, desde el vínculo universidad-empresa, modos de actuaciones para la ampliación de las capacidades de gestión del turismo rural como factor de desarrollo local en el ámbito municipal Metodología: Esta investigación se enmarca en un enfoque descriptivo de naturaleza cualitativa. Se emplearon métodos como el análisis documental, la observación científica y entrevistas para fundamentar la propuesta, basándose en experiencias de trabajo en los municipios avílenos de Florencia, Chambas y Bolivia. Resultados: Se estructuraron varias acciones y talleres que, integralmente, y en el marco del vínculo universidad-empresa-municipio, aportan un conjunto de herramientas que potencian el aprendizaje y la generación de capacidades de gestión innovadoras en el aspecto municipal, en función del desarrollo local a partir de la actividad turística. Conclusiones: Las acciones y talleres propuestos representan una contribución significativa a la gestión del turismo rural en estos municipios, donde la creación de estructuras y sistemas de trabajo es crucial para impulsar la economía local y sistematizar el conocimiento en materia turística, promoviendo así un impacto directo en el desarrollo local.
Purpose: To determine the relationship between endomarketing management and staff engagement in a municipality in Lima-Peru.
Theoretical framework: Kotler and Amstrong (2014) argued that ...endomarketing consists of the application of theories, techniques, rules of strategic marketing and human resource management at all levels of the organization, seeking to continuously improve the service offered to employees or internal customers. In this sense, employees are seen as corporate partners who need to feel satisfied, so that they work motivated and committed to provide high quality products and services that meet the expectations of the consumer public. Also, Rosen (2020) stated that engagement occurs when employees feel part of the company, i.e., they have an internal incentive, a broad motivation and a sense of commitment quite genuine, it has an exponential growth, as they themselves intervene by contributing novel ideas and care to identify problematic situations.
Design/methodology/approach: As stated by Agudelo et al. (2008) the variables were not manipulated, so the design was non-experimental. Likewise, Bernal (2016) argued that, when performing calculations for a research it is of quantitative approach, and if it intends to relate two or more variables it is a correlational work, Likewise, Morgan et al. (2019) argued that as it has been started from hypotheses that can be corroborated or refuted to confront events, the method was hypothetical deductive. And taking into account what was proposed by Salkind, & Bruce (2021), the cut is transversal because the collection of information has been carried out in a limited time frame.
Findings: It is evident that 58.82% consider endomarketing to be good, not so far from the average level of 41.18% who observed it to be fair and there were no expressions of finding it bad; in the case of engagement, a considerable 70.59% find it good, which is quite far from the opinion of 27.06% who consider it to be acceptable and only 2.35% perceive engagement to be bad.
Research, Practical & Social implications: On the other hand, in the practical argumentation, stated Salkind, & Bruce (2021), reference is made to the fact that with the results obtained corrective measures can be taken to optimize the services of the municipality, which finally leads to a social argumentation, as the users of local government services benefit. Finally, according to Hernández et al. (2014), the social justification is due to the fact that, if the appropriate corrective measures are applied, the users of local government services will benefit.
Originality/value: The present work is methodologically postulated because the questionnaires have been adapted for the public sector and the concepts were discussed with an expertise and depth that may be useful in the future for those interested in delving into the conceptions of the variables.
Nowadays in the world, public structures are just as often and fundamentally pre-evaluating investment projects using a proven methodology as private investors. This allows them to predict the ...results of the investment project implementation and to make final conclusions about the effectiveness of the investment project compared to the actual indicators. Moreover, there is a clear tendency to reduce the volume of projects for which pre-selection-evaluation procedures are applied, before making a decision on their implementation. On the example of Georgia, despite the fact that a normative base for pre-selection and evaluation of investment projects has been created with the involvement of donor organizations, we have not been able to find even one case of selection and evaluation of investment projects at the municipal level (except the capital). Therefore, the aim of our research is to identify the circumstances that prevent municipalities from pre-evaluating investment projects, analyze the challenges municipal authorities faces in this area, make appropriate conclusions and develop recommendations to solve the existing challenges. There was approved "Investment Project Management Guide" by the Government Resolution №191 on the management of public investment projects (22.04.2016); The management methodology of investment project was approved y the order of the Minister of Finance of Georgia N165 (22.07.2016) and according to them, public investment projects with a value of 5 million GEL or more were subject to selection and evaluation. According to the international practice, the above-mentioned guide and methodology suggests the use of CBA - Cost-Benefit Analysis and CEA - Cost-Effectiveness Analysis methods for the evaluation of alternative projects. Cost-benefit analysis in the evaluation of a public investment project is characterized by certain specific features, which is reflected in the fact that the evaluation of costs and benefits of the investment project goes beyond the narrow spectrum of financial indicators of the implementing agency and is done in a broader economic context. It is called as economic cost-benefit, which refers to the estimation of costs and benefits in the context of society as a whole, including possibly costs and benefits for which market prices are sometimes not directly observable. Therefore, in order to evaluate investment projects with this approach, it is necessary to have a number of statistical data and information in the target area of the project, depending on the specifics of the project, which in most cases are impossible to obtain at the municipal level. Therefore, they are not able to use the cost-benefit approach when evaluating alternative projects. However, as our observations have shown, this is not the only reason and there are other interceptive conditions. In that case when it is not possible to calculate the benefits of project implementation with sufficient accuracy, it is advisable to use cost-effectiveness analysis to evaluate projects. That should be relatively simple for the municipalities, however, in the 10 municipalities we did surveys, there is not a single case of its usage and investment project evaluation in general has not been identified. In the process of the survey, from the respondents which represent the economic services of the municipalities, it was found that the majority (about 75%) are not well acquainted with the requirements of the above guide and methodology, about 80% do not have an economic education that will allow them to practice independently evaluate investment projects in the process of activities. After getting acquainted with the essence of the methods of cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis, the problem of finding relevant statistical indicators was named as the main obstacle to the process of evaluation of investment projects by these methods. They also emphasize that the lack of statistical information at the municipal level also delays the effective implementation of the municipality's activities in many other areas. As a result of the conducted research, we can conclude that in order to effectively conduct the pre-selection-evaluation process of investment projects at the municipal level following issues has to be considered: • Increase the qualifications of relevant staff of municipal bodies and provide them with relevant knowledge and skills to be able to evaluate investment projects funded by the municipality using a proven methodology based on objective analysis. Moreover, in order to achieve this, except providing staff training, we also consider it advisable to appoint experienced external consultants (Coach) to the municipalities at the first stage, who will offer their staff on-the-job training; • As a result of the cooperation between the Municipalities and the National Statistics Office, the list of key statistical information that is critical to the effective implementation of municipal government should be defined and the National Statistics Office should be responsible for collecting, processing and delivering it to municipalities; • Municipalities should evaluate investment projects in the first stage using the cost-effectiveness analysis method, and after purchasing the relevant competencies and providing the necessary statistical information to the relevant staff, gradually introduce other methods, including the cost-benefit analysis method; • After implementing the given recommendations, a amendment should be made in the relevant government decree and the cost of the investment projects that will be subject to selection-evaluation by the above-mentioned methodology should be reduced to 1 million GEL. There is no doubt that the implementation of these mentioned recommendations will give a number of positive results to the municipalities, among which we should first of all mention the increase in the efficiency and effectiveness of public finance spending
The Perceived State of Water Security in South Africa: A Local Government Perceptions Analysis.
•We report on a project that investigated people's understanding of water security in two South African ...Municipalities.•We analysed divergent views on the state of water security in the local governments using a qualitative methodology.•In the article we also present a new definition of water security based on the individuals’ perceptions and understanding of the phenomenon.•We believe that this new definition would open new avenues of research into water security based on the personal experience and interaction with water resources by individuals.
South Africa is one of the 40 driest countries in the world with an annual average rainfall of less than 500 mm. In addition, South Africa’s rate of economic development is closely linked to its level of water security, as rising water stress and increasing supply variability, flooding, inadequate access to safe drinking water and sanitation, and higher levels of water pollution could be creating a drag on economic growth. Despite the high premium placed on our water resources, there is no commonly shared understanding of water security. This paper reports on a stakeholder analysis conducted in two South African municipalities to determine their perceived state of water security. We investigated how people, from different lifestyles, perceive water security in the Greater Sekhukhune District Municipality and the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality. We specifically asked respondents if water security had been achieved in the areas. The inland-situated Sekhukhune has a drier climate and a rural socio-economic profile as opposed to the coastal, urbanised eThekwini with its complex economy and diverse socio-economic structure. We conducted face-to-face structured interviews with a diverse stakeholder group in the municipalities and focus groups in two communities of each municipality: Leeuwfontein and Motetema (Sekhukhune) and Inanda and Ntshongweni (eThekwini). Following a qualitative analysis, we found that water security, therefore, is a state of mind based on context-specific (i.e. localised and individualised) perceptions and practices held by individuals of water-related threats and/or opportunities and how it influences them, their surroundings and their interactions with others. For instance, people perceive drought to be a water security challenge only when it affects their daily lives such as household water supply or the availability of water for livestock. We propose a number of policy interventions and response strategies based on these context-specific water security notions.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
El artículo aborda las formas en las que los debates en torno a la reforma fiscal en Argentina se reflejaron y readaptaron a los ámbitos municipales durante la crisis económica provocada por la ...Primera Guerra Mundial. A partir del caso de Posadas, capital del entonces territorio nacional de Misiones, se propone observar cómo se reflejaban los nuevos debates planteados en torno al problema tributario y a las atribuciones municipales de establecer gravámenes progresivos desde el periódico local La Tarde. A través de este análisis se sostiene que los temas discutidos dan cuenta de la difusión de un conjunto de ideas según las cuales las municipalidades eran reconocidas como instituciones de gobierno dotadas de las atribuciones necesarias para introducir reformas tributarias o direccionar su política fiscal sobre la base de gravámenes progresivos, y a la vez regular los precios de los alimentos en favor de los sectores perjudicados por la crisis. Asimismo se argumenta que estas percepciones también se nutrían de las experiencias de otras municipalidades que funcionaban como modelos de lo posible. En este marco las iniciativas municipales pueden comprenderse como insertas en un espacio amplio de discusión sobre el alcance de las capacidades municipales ante la crisis y no solo como respuestas locales.
The paper approaches ways in which the debates around the tax reform in Argentina were reflected and readjusted into municipal levels during the WWI economic crisis. By taking the case of Posadas, capital city of the national territory of Misiones, it proposes to observe how the new debates on the tax system and the municipal attributions to establish a more progressive levy were reflected from the local newspaper La Tarde. Through this analyses it is sustained that the issues discussed show the circulation of ideas according to which municipalities were conceived as government institutions provided with the necessary attributions to introduce tax reforms or redirect their tax policies based on a progressive levy, and also regulate the prices of basic foodstuffs, in order to favor low-income sectors affected by the crisis. Likewise, we argue that although these conceptions were nurtured by widespread economic ideas such as Georgism, they also received influence from the experiences of other municipalities that worked as models of what could be done. In this context, municipal initiatives can be understood as inserted in a wider field of discussions over the scope of municipal capacities during the crisis and not only as local responses.
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