| dc.description.abstract | Managers use budgetary control to match financial performance objectives with budgets,
compare budgets with the actual outcomes and implement essential modifications.
Attaining robust financial performance stands as a fundamental goal for any prosperous
organization. Nonetheless, public universities in Kenya persist in encountering obstacles
in their financial performance. The key intent of the research was to establish the effect of
budgetary control on the financial performance of public universities located in the Mount
Kenya Region. The specific objectives were; to establish the effect of budget planning,
implementation, monitoring and participation on financial performance of the public
universities in Mount Kenya region. This research majorly used the hypothesis of
budgeting, the agency hypothesis and the stakeholder’s hypothesis. The design used in the
investigation was descriptive. The target population was 7 universities located in Mount
Kenya Region. The specific respondents were the 284 heads of departments in both
Academic and Administration divisions of the universities. Since the target population was
small, all the 284 respondents were used in the study. Structured questionnaires were used
to seek opinions from the 284 respondents. The researcher used drop and pick method to
issue and collect filled in questionnaires after 2 weeks. Data analysis was performed to
establish a link between theory and reality by examining the research hypothesis and
addressing the study objectives. The clean data were entered in the SPSS for further
analysis. These data were analyzed using descriptive techniques, correlations and
regressions. The data was presented using charts and tables. The study results showed that
budgetary planning, budget participation, monitoring and implementation had a positive
and significant effect on financial performance of public universities. The study concluded
that most public universities were not able to fully involve their employees in the budgetary
process. Further most public universities employees are not committed to ensuring an
effective budget process. The study concluded that though the public universities had
budgetary committees the committees were not able to periodically meet and review the
budget performance. In addition, most public universities budget policies were not able to
help in monitoring budget spending limits. The study concluded that most public
universities were not always able to audit their report. Further, the evaluation process of
the budgets in most universities was not transparent. Further, budget auditing enhanced the
performance of the institutions. Further, effective communication and transparency during
the budgetary process enhanced the financial performance of the universities. Universities
are urged to embrace budgetary control techniques since they play a key role in improving
the financial performance of universities. Therefore, the research recommends university
management to pay attention to proper planning, monitoring, and implementation of the
budgets as well as allowing participation of employees in the budget process | en_US |
