ABSTRACT

Municipal financial capacity may be weak for a number of reasons. This chapter tries to define and explore those reasons. It offers a checklist for diagnosing the likely weaknesses of a particular organisation. Any simplified diagnostic tool must be used with caution – or rather it needs to be used with a degree of imagination. The diagnostic tools offered here include a simplified pathology of the municipality in terms of its financial capabilities. Any actual municipality is likely to be rather different from the types suggested.