Determinants Of Public Participation In Program-based Budgeting In Muranga County Government

Abstract

Public participation in budgeting processes is a democratic policy-making process which has attracted substantial attention from scholars and public management practitioners. The purpose of the study was to explore the determinants of public participation in the program-based budgeting in county governments. Muranga County is one of the counties which have severally been cited by the Auditor General due to failure to meet transparency and accountability parameters in program-budgeting processes. The study general objective was to examine the determinants public participation in program-based budgeting in Muranga County Government. The specific objectives of the study were to: To establish how the stakeholders’ engagement strategies affect public participation in program-based budgeting in Muranga County Governments, to assess the influence of public participation framework, examine the influence of communities’ demographic characteristics, and explore suggestions for enhancing public participation in program-based budgeting in Muranga County Governments. The study adopted a descriptive study design and was guided by the New Public Management Theory, Resource-Based Theory and the Agency Theory. The target population were all the 587,126 adult residents of Muranga County. The researcher used Quota sampling with a sample size of 395 and Purposive sampling techniques. Data was gathered using a semi-structured questionnaire and processed with SPSS Version 25. 300 questionnaires were filled and returned, representing 75.9% response rate. All the three variables showed slight correlation with public participation in program-based budgeting but only accounted for 7.5%. The county scored poorly on all the areas focused, yet stakeholders’ engagement strategies showed better score (Mean=3.429, SD= 0.5634). The study’s regression model indicated Demographic Characteristics had the highest effect (β= 0.008, t= 0.153) but was not significant at p < 0.05. followed by Public Participation Framework (β= -0.035, t= -0.491, p < 0.623) and Stakeholders’ engagement (β= -0.094, t= -1.07, p < 1.09). The three variables not statistically significance implying that there was no enough evidence to rule out that the relationship was likely by chance. Although the County Government of Muranga has various strategies to engage the residents on its respective program budgeting processes, there is need to improve on accountability and reporting as well as enhancing the public participation framework. The study recommends that the County Government of Muranga should improve its public participation framework to address the concerns raised. The county also needs to leverage on technology by digitizing its public participation protocols as suggested by experts.