ABSTRACT:

This paper examined the control and regulation of state agencies in Tanzania. Since the 1980s public sector in Tanzania has experienced a number of administrative reforms and one key aspect of that reform was the creation of semi-autonomous public organizations that are placed at arm’s length from their parent ministries. These agencies were to be given more managerial autonomy in return for performance-based accountability. Instead of inputs and rule-based governance, the policy intention was to control agencies on the basis of performance results. The aim of this paper was to examine whether this reform policy is effectively implemented in Tanzania by focusing on how agencies are practically controlled by their parent ministries. Our main finding is that agencies in Tanzania are not mainly subjected to result-based control. In most cases the government has continued to use the traditional ways of controlling public organizations such as inputbased approach and political appointment. This implies that the NPM –inspired reforms have been poorly adopted.