FISCAL DISTRIBUTION OF PUBLIC WORKS IN THE WATER SUPPLY SECTOR IN NIGERIA (1994 - 1996)

Abstract

The distribution of fiscal resources to public water supply projects in Nigeria might be compared to the allocation of revenue amongst the three tiers of government in the Nigerian federation, which usually subscribes to some normal basis. such normal basis takes the population, population density and geographical area of the States into consideration. to aid in such comparison, data was collected on average budgeted expenditure of the twenty State Governments on public water supply projects from 1994 to 1996. Multiple linear regression and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyse the data. The results obtained had an R2 value of 2.4%. The calculated value of the F-statistic was lower than the tabulated value. At the same time, the probability value of alpha was considerably higher than the 0.05 limit. It was inferred that the population, population density and geographical area of the States had no significant effects on the allocation of funds to State-sponsored public water supply projects. Conclusions were drawn that unlike revenue allocation, the basis for fiscal distribution of public water supply projects in Nigerian States did not appear to have the the population, population density and geographical area of the States as important parameters. It was recommended that future distribution of such projects take into account these three parameters. This could be implemented through the creation of awareness on the importance of these parameters via conferences, workshops and seminars for policy makers.