Abstract
The budget has been and continues to be a tool for effectuating fiscal policy goals of governments worldwide. The case of developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana is no exception. The arguments in support of systematised budgeting and budgetary control regimes in the public sector of economies, both developed and developing are overwhelmingly persuasive. The aforementioned arguments have been normalised in practice and application to the extent of being unfairly characterised as ritualistic in some cases. Interestingly however, inherent in the ritualistic nature of budgets are useful opportunities for leveraging on the strengths of budgeting and budgetary control for effective service delivery for value-for-money and value-for-many. Polemic evidence suggests that health service delivery remains a major challenge to many economies of the world, especially those of the developing world. This qualitative study relies on interviews and document reviews to analyse the practical challenges of budgeting and budgetary control from the perspective of a developing country, using the health service sector of Ghana as a case in point. The paper argues that harnessing the opportunities for improvement inherent in systematised budgeting and budgetary control could produce synergistic effects in the face of the apparent challenges. Key words: Budgeting, budgetary control, public financial management, health care delivery.
Highlights
Governments and governmental agencies worldwide have, as a fundamental goal, delivering quality living standards for their citizens
Institutions are created in the public sector and charged with the responsibility of delivering various public services that meet the needs of the general population, such as health care, education, portable water, motorable roads just to mention a few
Reflective notes were taken as part of a sorting-out process to identify major or recurring themes in the data after which codes were developed to group data based on their characteristics using Microsoft word following the procedure recommended by Swanson and Holton (2005)
Summary
Governments and governmental agencies worldwide have, as a fundamental goal, delivering quality living standards for their citizens. A critical key to achieving this fundamental goal is the promotion of good health among the citizenry, as healthy persons, living in peace, security, and comfort are „sine qua non‟ for a quality standard of life To achieve this objective, institutions are created in the public sector and charged with the responsibility of delivering various public services that meet the needs of the general population, such as health care, education, portable water, motorable roads just to mention a few. These institutions have a duty to deploy the resources entrusted to them efficiently in pursuit of quality service delivery. Least cost of outcomes, otherwise termed value for money has long been one of the criteria for judging the performance of public sector agencies
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