Abstract:
With the adoption of devolution and county governments in Kenya, it was vital to establish the influence of public participation, staff competency, government regulations and the application of information technology on effective management of budget in county governments in Kenya. The variables were chosen based on the consideration that they are pre-requisites for effective budget management. The problem that the study sought to address was lack of proper management of the budget and the budgetary process that culminated to a low pace of development which was contrary to what was anticipated after the promulgation of the new constitution of Kenya in 2008.The problem was clearly demonstrated by the huge sums of unspent amounts in county governments’ accounts at the end of each financial year but with many incomplete projects. This was according to a report from the National Treasury; the problem was also further demonstrated through complains by Kenyan citizens on the print media that County Governments were undertaking projects that were not in accordance with their wishes. The research study will also after establishing the factors affecting effective management of the budget in county governments give recommendations on how to address them. The target population was county government employees in the county governments in Kenya while the accessible population was employees working for the county government of Makueni, Nairobi, Narok and Kakamega. The researcher collected data through administering questionnaires to senior county government officials in each department. Descriptive research technique was applied to analyze and interpret data that made it possible to draw conclusions on the factors affecting effective management of the budget in county governments. The study established that there is a positive and significant relationship between the factors covered in the study and effective management of the budget in county governments in Kenya, (R-squared 50. 47%). Analyzed data and findings were presented in tables, charts and graphical presentations. These was being aided by the application of STATA which is a statistical software. The sample comprised of 96 county government employees where senior employees in each department were the subjects and stratified sampling technique was applied to identify the sample.
