Eureka! Institutional Repository

If the Local Authorities wish to respond more effectively to their institutional role and their ever-growing competencies, they must strengthen their financial capacity and autonomy. In recent years, the limitation of subsidies from Central Administration to Local Government, as a result of the deep economic crisis, has brought to the fore the need for municipalities to improve the mechanisms for seeking, certifying and collecting their statutory income. Significant audit mechanisms such as the Court of Audit and the Greek Ombudsman, have highlighted the failure of municipalities to implement appropriate procedures to improve the collection of their own revenues. This paper presents the most important sources of revenue, of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, highlighting the pathogens in the individual procedures for certification and collection, which do not allow a smooth inflow of income. As a basis, we have used (a) the Court's Special Income Statement for the year 2013 and (b) the Ombudsman's Report on the revenues of the Municipalities. We have monitored the revenue flow of the Municipality in recent years, drawing on data from basic financial statements and Reports of Auditors. The conclusion we reach is that, although the collection rate is low, there is scope for improvement, through the revision of internal control mechanisms and the development of cooperation rules, with third parties