FACTORS INFLUENCING IMPLEMENTATION OF PUBLIC FINANCIAL REGULATIONS IN NATIONAL SUB-COUNTY TREASURIES IN NAKURU COUNTY, KENYA

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.