FACTORS AFFACTING BUDGET UTILIZATION IN ETHIOPIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

This study wanted to investigate factors affecting budget utilization in Ethiopian public universities. In this study a lot of factors that affect budget utilization were assessed in depth. Among them, transparency, delay in approval of budget, tendency to corruption, lack of work plan and budget preparation, lack of effective communication, responsiveness to government directives, lack adequate training on budget utilization, government interferences, unstable government policies, unplanned activities dropped from the government were the common factors affecting budget utilization. A total of 120 respondents were randomly selected from the study universities equally (30 from each). Primary data were collected using likert scale question and open questionnaires. The collected data were analyzed using various descriptive statistics. The result of the study indicated significant improvement of budget allocation to public universities from time to time. But drift of improper utilization were observed. It is observed that budget were not frequently revised and not systematically linked with annual plan and transparency in public universities was the common factors that influence budget utilization. Corruption was the other factors that disturb budget utilization and lack of clear performance indicators to measures the actual results significantly influence budget utilization. Besides this, unplanned activities dropped from government had negatively and significantly influence and affected budget utilization. Finally, it is concluded that Lack of transparency, lack of linking between the work plan & budget preparation, Tendency of corruption, unplanned activities dropped from the government, Lack of skills and experience of employees in few instance, lack of training and other many have been deteriorating budget preparation and utilization. To improve these common problems the researcher recommended the universities and government should set strict rules and regulation to punish for those corrupted individuals, the government should apply Block grant budget method for public Universities specifically for the capital budget to utilize the approved budget successfully, the university also should assign better trained, experienced and committed professionals.