Abstract:
Regulation is amongst the central instruments through which governments seek to
deliver on their policy priorities. However, a lack of consensus on exactly how
regulation should be conceptualized can make studying its nature and effects
problematic. Therefore this study focused on assessing the factors influencing
implementation of financial regulations in the national Sub-County Treasuries in
Nakuru County, Kenya. The study examined the effect of cost, technology, policy
based budgeting and internal financial controls on the implementation of financial
regulations in national Sub-County Treasuries in Nakuru county, Kenya. A
descriptive research design was employed for this study which helped the researcher
to generalize the findings to a large population. The target population was the finance
officers in the national Sub-County Treasuries in Nakuru County. There are 68
finance officers in the national Sub-County Treasuries in Nakuru. Based on the small
population of the study, the researcher opted to conduct a census where every
employee was involved in the study. A questionnaire constructed on a five point
Likert scale was employed as the main instrument for primary data collection. The
instrument was pilot tested prior to the actual data collection to check for validity and
reliability of the instrument. The data collected was analyzed using both descriptive
(frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation) and inferential (Pearson
product moment correlation coefficient) statistics. Data was analyzed with the aid of
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 and presented in tables and
discussions thereof. The study established that cost have no significant influence on
implementation of financial regulations. However, technology was found to
significantly influence implementation of financial regulations with an average
significant relationship with implementation of financial regulations. Further policy
based budgeting was shown to have an average positive significant relationship
(r=.584) with implementation of financial regulations. Internal accountability also had
a weak positive significant relationship (r=.426) with implementation of financial
regulations. However t-test revealed that internal accountability has no significant
influence on implementation of financial regulations. The study concluded that the
implementation of financial regulations is influenced first by technology, followed by
policy based budgeting, then by internal accountability and finally by cost of
implementation. The study recommended that for effective implementation of
financial regulations in national Sub-county treasuries, the government should
reinforce the use of information technology in its treasury operations. On the other
hand the treasury management should also ensure that its staff is aware of the policy
guidelines for budget making. The national treasury should also put systems in place
to check for internal accountability among its staff operations.