Effectiveness of financial management in Uganda National Roads Authority

Abstract

The study sought to examine the effectiveness of financial management at Uganda National Roads Authority. The literature in the study constituted learning literature on the concept of financial management and published documentation on UNRA’s budget process, payables & receivables management. The objectives of this study were to examine the effectiveness of budgeting process, to examine the effectiveness of payables management and to examine the effectiveness of receivables management at Uganda National Roads Authority. The study adopted a cross sectional survey methodology to achieve the set objectives. The data was collected from UNRA Kampala from an accessible population of 60 staff of the department of Audit and finance. Using a structured questionnaire approach, and documentary check review data on the variables of interest was collected from 53 respondents. The researcher made use of primary and secondary methods of data collection which included questionnaires and documentary check review. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies, mean and standard deviation; using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The general pattern of the findings revealed that there is effective financial management at UNRA but also limitations such as lack of a planning framework to guide the budget committee. Based on these findings, the study recommended provision of a planning framework that guides the preparation of directorate budgets, government approvals of projects should be aligned to availability of funds and management should institute reforms to manage staff advances and improve recovery of already paid advances.