Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to determine factors affecting budget utilization in East Wollega
Administrative Zone. To accomplish this objectives Descriptive research type were adopted. The
study employed both qualitative and quantitative approach. From 17 woredas, five woreda by
random sample, city administration finance office and zone finance office are selected. The study
used a census survey whereby the entire population included since the number of respondents
very small. The study used the response from 72 employees directly related to budget
preparation, implementation and controlling. Five-year (2014-2018) data has been collected
from secondary sources and also primary data were collected through questionnaire. The
researcher used both questionnaire and interviews to collect data for the research. The
questionnaire contained open and closed ended questions and covered areas of budget
utilization to come up with good raw data for the research. All collected information was
analyzed by using both descriptive, multiple linear regression models and ANOVA testing. Data
obtained from respondents were entered into SPSS database application for analysis. For this
study, seven independent variables were identified including tax collection capacity, fund
diverting, structure of the organization, inflation rate, government policy, and staff capacity and
auditing. Therefore; based on output of SPSS the variables including tax collection capacity,
fund diverting, structure of the organization and inflation rate affects budget utilization
significantly. The remaining three variables; government policy, staff capacity and auditing are
insignificant at p>0.05. Then, the researcher recommended that East Wollega public
organizations should understand the contributions of these four variables to poor budget
utilization in the public sector offices.
