CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Nigeria has been divided into six geo-political zones – South-South, South-West, South- East, North- East, North -West and North- Central. IMO State falls within the geo-political zone of North-Central. The State was first created as Benue-IMO in 1967. It later became IMO State with the creation of Benue State in 1976. Nassarawa State was also created out of IMO State in 1996.
The Nigerian public sector consists of the governments at the Federal, States, Federal Capital Territory, Local Governments and all government parastatals. The public sector plays an important role in economic development. It provides services which the private sector may not be willing or able to provide. Chan (1988:15) argues thatthe public sector provides many essential services to society. It plays an essentially compensatory function; that is, it performs those functions that the market economy does not do efficiently or lacks the incentive to do at all.
Musgrave and Musgrave (1976) classify these functions as
Resource Allocation – the provision of public goods and services. Income Distribution – the adjustment of the distribution of wealth or income in the society to conform to some principle of fairness. c) Stabilization – the use of fiscal policies to achieve high employment, price stability and economic growth.
In a Federal system like Nigeria, the different tiers of government perform these functions in varying degrees. Governments at all levels desire to deliver good governance to all their citizens. This is because “good governance is central to creating and sustaining an enabling environment for development” (Asselin, 1995:3). A strong link exists between economic development and good governance, and between good governance and fiscal transparency.
