Abstract:
This study attempts to investigate the problems of internal revenue generation in the local government system in Nigeria, using Aninri local government council of Enugu State as a case study. In doing this, we were able to determine whether Paucity of trained and skilled revenue collectors constrain Aninri Local Government council from generating enough internal revenue and to investigate whether corruption among revenue collectors hinders Aninri Local Government council from generating enough internal revenue.We also made use of descriptive survey method of data collection, in which questionnaire instrument was administered to the randomly selected staff of Aninri Local Government Council. We use simple percentage in analyzing our data. We adopted Systems theory as our theoretical framework and we were able to arrive at the following findings; that lack of training opportunities for revenue collectors has been the major problem that hinder the council from generating enough internal revenue, and Incompetence among council officials contributed to low generation of internal revenue, and Corruption which existed among revenue collectors hinders Aninri Local Government from generating enough internal revenue. Base on the findings the study recommend as follows: Regular training programmes should be provided for internal revenue collectors in order to minimize incompetence in the council and there should be checks and balances not only for the revenue collectors but the whole departments, this is because power corrupts, and, absolute power corrupts absolutely, there should be constant monitoring of internal revenue collectors and its Operational Performance to reduce the problem of corruption.
