Determinants of Budget Utilization at Public Administration Office (A Case Study of East Wollega Administrative Zone)

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.