Abstract

Provision of quality basic services has been a problem in most African countries including Malawi. This continues to be a big challenge despite users paying fees to district or city councils to support delivery of quality basic services such as water, good roads and clean toilets in public places such as bus depots. It is against this background that the research aimed to explore the role of fees in the provision of basic services at bus depots. The research was conducted at Limbe Bus Depot which is run by Blantyre City Council. Purposive sampling was used to select eleven key informants for the study. These included: two members of staff from Blantyre City Council, seven revenue collectors and two members of staff from Beautify Malawi Trust. Snowball sampling was employed to identify the sample population, which could not be easily traced due to their large numbers at the bus depot. These included sixteen traders and ten drivers. Primary data was collected through qualitative observation and semi-structured interviews which contained open and close-ended questions. Published government reports, unpublished dissertations, online and offline newspapers, and the internet were a source of secondary data. Thematic analysis was used to analyse descriptive data collected through the interviews. From the analysed data, the research concluded that the role of bus depot fees on the provision of services at Limbe Bus Depot is very minimal. The research identified payment of staff salaries and provision of basic services as the critical roles of bus depot fees but it’s done at a minimum scale. Equity, penalties for non-compliance and improved service provision were used as tools to enforce compliance. However, factors such as self-enrichment by administrators, lack of awareness on importance of fees, lack of transparency and accountability were among the reasons for low fees collection. Furthermore, lack of trust in fees collectors, lack of political commitment, use of the manual system to administer tickets and corruption were identified as challenges facing revenue collection hence critical role of bus depot fees is not very evident due to such challenges. For further studies, the researcher recommends research to focus on the role of e-government in local revenue collection and the role of improved service provision on revenue collection.

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School	: School of Law, Economics and Government
Issued Date	: 2021

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