FACTORS AFFECTING EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF PUBLIC BUDGET: A CASE OF SELECTED PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS IN HAWASSA TOWN ADMINISTRATION, SIDAMA REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The aim of this study was aimed to investigate factors affecting effective utilization of public budget in selected public organizations in Hawassa Town Administration. This study used descriptive and explanatory research design. The research used non-probability sampling technique to select samples. Population of the study was taken from six public organizations in Hawassa City administration who are working in plan preparation directorate, finance administration and internal audit directorate by selecting purposely a total sample of 138 respondents. In the selection, census sampling technique was employed. Primary data was collected using five Point Likert-Scale questionnaires, and out of 138 survey questionnaires 132 responses were properly filled and returned. Then the responses were analyzed using statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version-25 and Stata-14 and summarized to relate the variables that were collected from questionnaires. Both descriptive and binary logistic analysis was used to analyze the responses. The descriptive analysis result shows that all independent variables such as staff competency, stakeholder’s involvement, information technology, finance rules and regulations and auditing & monitoring had got moderate mean score. These results suggest that a numbers of respondents were not fully satisfied on level practice of these variables. From spearman correlation analysis result, five independent variables have a positive and significant relationship with the dependent variable of effective budget utilization of public sectors in Hawassa City Administration at 99% confidence level. As per the result of binary logistic regression analysis the researcher concluded that the five predictor variables (i.e., staff competency, stakeholder’s involvement, information technology, finance rules and regulations and auditing & monitoring) had significant effect on the dependent variable effective public budget utilization) in the study area. Finally the study recommended that the study public organizations should improve practice of staff competency activities, stakeholder’s involvement, information technology, finance rules and regulations and auditing & monitoring in order to increase the probability of improvement of the existing budget utilization status of public organizations.