PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES OF PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT IN SELECTED PUBLIC FINANCIAL SECTORS IN SILTE ZONE, SNNPRS, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

his study was aimed at assessing the Practice and Challenges of public financial management in selected public financial sectors in the Silte Zone. A descriptive research design and mixed approach was employed. The primary data were collected through survey questionnaires with structured questions and interviews. The secondary data were collected from various documents, publications and government public financial management proclamations, regulations, directives and official documents via a review of official working relevant manuals, and other government documents. The targeted population was servants of selected public financial sectors in Silte zone. A non-probability sampling methods and purposeful sampling technique was used to collecting a data, with a total of 91 sample employees were selected from the two sampled sectors. Questionnaires were distributed to the sampled respondents. After respondents returned the questionnaires, the interview took place with the thirteen budget, procurement, and audit directors, coordinators and experts in the sectors, Primary and secondary data were collected by means of document review, observation, questionnaires, and interviews and analyzed using descriptive statistics using Statistical Package for Social Science version 26, with the results presented in the table, while the qualitative data was analyzed and presented via narration. The study found that, all public financial activities carried out based on the federal and regional government public financial administration legal framework and it needed update the federal and regional public financial management regal framework and lack of cash, insufficient budget, management , lack of well-trained financial personnel, audit difficulty, political instability of the countries and the region, fragmentation of the region, and dependability on national and regional grants were the major challenges that faced the public financial sector to effective and efficient management of public finance. The study recommended expanding internal and external revenue sources; amending procurement rules to increase servant salaries and other perquisites; improving the budget; and ensuring adequate management and strong employee commitment in the financial framework and its implementation. Additionally, the study recommends that similar studies be undertaken in other public financial sectors to generalize the findings of this study.