Assessment of the Extent of Corporate Governance Adoption in Cooperative Societies: A Survey of Dar Es Salaam SACCOS

Four years of implementing the CRMP, little is known about the extent of adoption of the measures to improve governance in cooperatives in general and SACCOS in particular. Therefore this study generally intended to assess the extent of good governance practices adoption in cooperative societies. A sample of 25 SACCOS(15 work –based and 10 community based) were systematically drawn from a population of SACCOS in Dar es salaam. A questionnaire designed in a likert scale format to assess the extent of adoption of code of conduct for board and management, measures to ensure members participation and extent of compliance was administered to each SACCOS. Comparative bar charts were used to sort the attitudinal items that described the extent of adoption. Independent two sample t-test was used to compare the means of the mean scores across scale items in each of the three categories between work-based and community-based SACCOS. The study reveals that Savings and credit Cooperative societies in Dar es salaam have adopted measures to enhance good governance principles. However there is significant differences in the extent of adoption of such measures between work-based and community-based SACCOS .Significant differences were found in the areas of electing leaders as per code of conduct, disclosure of property by leaders, training as well as induction for board members, executive, members and staff performance assessment. It is recommended that measures to empower SACCOS in the areas be instituted by relevant regulatory authorities