Public Organizations and Good Budgetary Control, Implications on Governance (a Case Study of Port Harcourt Local Government Authority)
CHAPTER ONE
Objective Of The Study
The primary purpose of this study is four fold. They include the following:
- To determine if budgeting and budgetary control affect the quality of service delivery in Port Harcourt Local government Authority.
- To determine if there is a connection between the type of budget implemented and their actual performance.
- To determine whether or not budgetary controls as a management tools contribute to the improvement of management efficiency and high productivity.
- To find out the use of the budgetary controls as an appraisal parameter for assessing managers budget.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
BUDGETING AND BUDGET
It is well recognized that an organization should be managed effectively and efficiently. Managing, in fact, implies coordination and control of the total enterprise efforts to achieve the organizational objectives. The process of managing is facilities when management charts its course in advance. The functions of management also include decision making facilities by various managerial techniques procedures and by utilizing the individual and group effort in a coordinated and ration way. Organizations have limited resources and these limited resources impose limit on the number and range of goals that the organization can hope to attain. One systematic approach for attaining effective management performance is profit planning or budgeting. Profit planning or budgeting is an integral part of management. The controller would be particularly interested in profit planning since it helps to regulate flows of fund which is this primary concern.
According to Pandey (2008), states that common organizational goals includes maximizing profits and achieving satisfactory level of performance and performing a social service by providing goods and services desired by others. It is with a view of achieving their organizational goals that great emphasis is placed on budgeting. The budgeting process may be quite formal in a large organization with committees set up to perform that task. On the other hand in a small firm the owner jot down his budget on a piece of scrape paper or even on the back of a used envelope, some even manage without writing anything down at all they have done the budget in their heads and can easily remember them. When a plan is expressed quantitatively it is known as budget and the process of converting plans into budget is known as budget. Budgeting therefore is essentially a process of planning and control.
He argues that a well prepare budget provides management with a planning programme based on investigation study and research on the part of the entire organization. The origin of budgeting can be traced to Egypt the candle of civilization were Joseph according to bible made a forecast of corn supplies and planned Pharoh’s investment and consumption policy.
The word “budget” comes from the friends for a small bag or purse and come to be associated with chancellor of the exchequer’s bag which contains annual estimate of the country’s income and expenditure in the national budget. The chancellor is concerned with planning, co-coordinating and controlling income and expenditure for the government.
Ezeamama (2010) opines that growing complexity of the business environment and the ever increasing competition among firms in the modern time make planning an invaluable tool for business success. Successful management is no longer just a matter of flai,r skills and determination, a conscious effort is needed to harness available resources towards the achievement of enterprise objectives. He says that budgeting is one of the tools adopted by management for effective cost planning and control.
Nwadighota (2005) defines budget as a plan expressed in quantitative and usually monetary terms every a specific period of time. Normally the period covered is one year and this makes it a short term plan. Practically all large organization bothn in the private and public sectors prepare annual budgets. He is of the view that budget is a short term financial plan which guides manager in achieving the objectives of a firm. Ama (2003) argues that budget is a quantitative expression of a plan of action prepared in advance of the period to which it relates. Budgeting may be prepared for the business as a whole, for department, for functions such as sales production or for financial and resources items such as cash capital expenditure manpower purchase etc. The process of preparing and agreeing budgeting is a means of translating the overall objectives of the organization into detailed feasible plans if actions. This is usually prepared for a stated period of time usually one year. A budget may be prepared simply using paper and pencil or on computer using spread sheet program like excel or with a financial application like quicken or quick books. A budget as defined by institute of cost and management Accountants “ICMA” IS A financial statement prepared and approved prior to a defined period of time of the policy to be pursued during that period for the purpose of attaining a giving objective.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH DESIGN
The research design discloses the steps taken by the researcher to conduct the research. It provides the glue that holds the research project together.
Zita and Ozougwu (2010) define research design as the function of the objective and the specific information requirements. They also went further to define research design as a master plan of the methods and procedures that should be used to collect and analyze the data needed by the decision makers.
Eze and Agbo (2005) opines that research design is the specification of procedures for collecting and analyzing data necessary to help solve the problems at hand, such that the difference between the cost of obtaining various level of accuracy and expected use of information associated with each level of accuracy is maximized.
Due to nature of this study a survey research method is used in gathering data from respondent.
SOURCE OF DATA
According to Okeke (2002), the researcher employed two types of data in the course of this research work. These are:
i.The primary data and
ii.Secondary data
PRIMARY DATA:
Bordens and Abbot (2002) define primary data as those containing the full research report including all details necessary to duplicate the study. The primary data are made up of information generated specifically for this study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
DATA PRESENTATION
Data presentation means the known ways of carrying the different forms of data obtained through various data selecting techniques to enable the researcher perform analysis and extract new meaning format.
The data collected was presented in simple table. The data analysis was based on the answer to question raised from the staff of Port Harcourt Local government Authority, River state. The question in the questionnaire was analyzed by the use of simple percentage. The analysis of the questionnaire distributed is stated below.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
from chapter four of the research project and the researcher had to summarize these findings so that it will help Port Harcourt Local government Authority River State staffs who was involved in budget implementation.
These summaries are as follows:
- That most of the staffs in Port Harcourt Local government Authority, River stateare male.
- Most of the members of the staff whom the researcher issued questionnaire were junior staffs.
- Many members of the staff believe that budget serves as an effective means of planning
- Many of the staffs are 30 years and above
- Many of the staff are married
- That most of the number of the staff are university graduate.
- That budget reflects their organization pattern of working which makes there system to change.
- That budgeting and budgeting control contribute to the improvement of management efficiency and high productivity.
- That budgeting and budgeting control is used for assessing mangers budget.
- That proper budgeting helps in the control of expenditure in Port Harcourt Local government Authority, River statewithout budgeting plans, the cooperation would keep spending money without a meaningful achievement for it, or to marten the measure of money being spent.
- Those problems like inadequate budgeting, accountings knowledge, corruption, lack of internal auditing and internal financial mechanism exist in the cooperation.
Conclusion
Having examined in details the use and importance of budgeting and budgeting control in the organization and roles they play toward determining the cooperate objectives, profit making, one could rightly conclude that it is, indispensible to any organization if budget are carefully planned and implemented by managers it could lead to decrease in cost and increase in revenue, which in turn will lead to increase in profit. Though budgeting and budgeting control could enhance the efficiency of the organization’s performance, it should be noted that it is not magic stick that could replace effective management or ensure that fairly profit are made.
The findings of the research shows that when budgets are effectively used, it serves as a means of meting and coordinating plans, for communicating those plans to those responsible for their execution or motivating managers at all levels and as a standard for measuring actual performance.
Recommendations
On the whole, the finding of the study support the conclusion that proper use of budgeting and budgeting controls contributes to the overall performance of an organization.
In the light of the findings made earlier the following are recommended:
That budget plan and preparation should be cooperate duty of the unit heads with the head of development in the corporation as the case may be.
That the approval of budget should be made public and should avoid corruption.
That budget committee should budget well in order to control expenditure in the cooperation because without budgeting well, the corporation will keep spending money without meaningful achievement for it.
Since budgeting and budgetary control contribute in the improvement of management efficiency and high productivity, the budget committee should be educated in the implementation of budget. This would enable them to understand the importance of adhering to budget and the minimization of loses. Thus a budget education should be conducted at least once a year by the financial or an independent accounting or management consulting firm. Its usefulness cannot be questioned or over emphasized.
Adherence to the budgetary provision should be practiced by top management. If they make arbitrary actions, the realization of the budget would be impossible.
Constant review and periodic review of the budget at intervals would enable them to correct deviations, which occurred within the interval before they get out.
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