Public Financial Management Practices and Financial Performance of Mandera County Government, Kenya

Abstract

According to the auditor general’s report, despite the huge sums of money counties receive, Mandera county government has not been able to meet their recurrent expenditures and revenue collection targets from 2015 to 2020. Past studies indicate that where there are prudent public financial management practices, county governments have been able to meet their mandates. It was therefore vital to empirically test public finance management practices in the Mandera county to establish whether they have a significant role in financial performance. The general objective of the study was to examine the influence of public financial management practices on financial performance of Mandera County Government, Kenya. Specifically, the study assessed the influence of budgeting process, resource management, financial policies and internal audit on financial performance in Mandera County. The study was based on systems theory, new public management theory and allocative efficiency theory. Cross-sectional research survey was applied in this study. Target population was all the 145 county government officers working in the revenue department. Stratified sampling method was used to arrive at a sample size of 95. The study used both primary and secondary data. A questionnaire was used to collect primary data whereas data collection sheet was used to collect secondary data from audited financial reports. Drop and pick later method was applied to administer the questionnaire. The study applied descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analyses to analyze the data collected. SPSS was used to conduct the analysis. Quantitative data analysis entailed computing descriptive statistics including frequency and percentage; measures of central tendency including the mean and the mode; and inferential statistics is including coefficient of determination, analysis of variance and regression analysis. The findings indicate that budgeting process, resource management, financial policies and internal auditing had positive significant effect on revenue collection. The study recommended that the county governments should ensure full employment of public financial management practices through strict adherence to the laid down frameworks in budgetary processes, resources management, financial policies, and internal audit. This would lead to optimal use of the available funds.”