Abstract

Budget management reforms were the major areas of the Nigerian public service reforms undertaken from the inception of civilian administration in 1999. The major objective was to enhance budget discipline among others. This was predicated on the theoretical considerations that improving the process and management of budgeting through reforms would be ultimately translated into improved budgetary outcome. This paper empirically investigated the impact of budget reforms on the quality of budget management in Nigeria. The Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) form the proxies for budget reforms, while budget discipline (BDISC) and fiscal discipline (FDISC) were used as proxies for the quality of budgeting. Historical time series data representing 7years before and 7 years after the adoption of MTEF, and 5 years before and 5 years after the enactment of FRA were collected and analysed using the pre-test/post-test design of a Paired Sample T-test. The result favoured our initial proposition that budget reforms (MTEF and FRA) had not significantly impacted on the quality of budget management (BDISC and FDISC) in Nigeria. It was, therefore, recommended that the government should provide the leadership and political will, not only to enforce the provisions of FRA, MTEF and other reforms, but to sanction those that short circuit the system to their advantage. This will go a long way to enhance compliance with the reforms, and bring about the expected improvement in the quality of the nation's budget management.

Highlights

  • The relevance of a budget in any economy cannot be overemphasized

  • The major objective was to enhance budget discipline among others. This was predicated on the theoretical considerations that improving the process and management of budgeting through reforms would be translated into improved budgetary outcome

  • This paper empirically investigated the impact of budget reforms on the quality of budget management in Nigeria

Read more

Summary

Introduction

The budget does function as a mechanism for resource mobilisation and allocation, it serves as a tool for economic management (Olomola, 2009 and Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), 2011) This is because the budget document sets the direction for the entire economy, determines who gets what and when, as well as provides funds to implement new initiatives/policies through legal, rational and acceptable means (Bengali, 2004). In Nigeria, budget management reforms were the major areas of the public service reforms undertaken from the inception of civilian administration in 1999 Prominent among these reforms were: the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) introduced in 2005, and the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) passed into the law in 2007. The rest of the paper is organised into four sections namely: literature review and theoretical framework, the study methodology, data analysis and conclusion

Literature Review and Theoretical Framework
Research Methods
Conclusion and Recommendations
Findings
Government Integrated Financial
Full Text
Paper version not known

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.