ABSTRACT
The study investigated finance management and service delivery in local governments in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, a case study of Bukavu Town. This study was guided by the following research objectives: to determine the level of finance management in Bukavu local government, to establish the level of service delivery in Bukavu local government and to establish the effect of finance management on service delivery in Bukavu local government. This study employed a cross-sectional research design strategy. Data was collected using researcher devised questionnaires and analyzed using frequency counts. The study findings revealed that the finance management level at Bukavu local government is still at its low level while service delivery on the other hand is also at a very questionable state. The study concluded that finance management is marred with budgetary indiscipline among the local leaders, lack of quarterly finance report publication, and the incapacity of the staff to handle internal control system. Service delivery on the other hand is hindered by inability of the administrators to consult with the local community, lack of publication of the standard and the quality of the services the local community is supposed to use and poor access to services due to lack of information disposal to the community in regard to the availability of such services. The study made the following recommendations: that the central government should. emphasize the use finance accounting tools at the local government level. This would help track the expenditures within the local government hence a great percentage of financial resources would be properly allocated; that the local government when recruiting should look at employing professional accountants. This would help solve the problem of lack of competent and professional accountants who can effectively use the new accounting procedures for better finance management and informed decision making by the leaders and that the local government should employ proper internal control system which would help promote proper budgeting and planning of public resources for equal and quality service delivery.
