Influence of Financial Management Practices On Service Delivery in the Public Health Facilities in Nakuru East Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

The study was necessitated by financial challenges facing public health facilities under the purview of devolved governments in Kenya. The study precisely, examined the effect of financial accountability on service delivery in public health facilities in Nakuru East Sub-County. A descriptive survey design was adopted. The 211 finance and management staff working with the aforestated facilities constituted the study population. A sample of 68 respondents was obtained by use of both purposeful and stratified random sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was employed to aid in data collection. The questionnaire was pilot tested in order to determine its validity and reliability. The collected data were subjected to both descriptive and inferential analyses with the facilitation of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 24 analytical tool. The null hypothesis was tested at 95% confidence level. The results of the analysis were presented in form of tables. The study found that there existed a positive, moderately strong and statistically significant relationship between financial accountability and service delivery(r = 0.471; p < 0.05). The study established that the studied financial management practice was able to explain 39.9% of service delivery. It was also found that there ought to be 0.613 unit change in financial accountability while holding other factors, not addressed by this study, constant as represented by (β0= 1.372) to realize I unit change in service delivery. The null hypothesis was rejected. The study concluded that financial accountability was significantly important in the delivery of health services. The public health facilities are advised to put in place effective, sound and reliable accountability mechanisms, financial controls, internal controls, and audit trails.