ENHANCING FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT FOR SERVICE DELIVERY AT COUNTY GOVERNMENTS IN KENYA

Abstract: This research sought to assess the financial management from the perspective of skills & capacity utilization, records keeping, budgeting and adoption of regulations by County governments in Kenya for purposes of enhancing service delivery to the public. A descriptive survey of 20 counties drawn across the former eight provincial /regional administrative units was conducted between 2018 and 2019. The findings indicate that most counties were constraint with skills and capacity across various sections including budgeting, records management and regulation.it was noted that Counties generated various types of records including policy related records, financial records and auditing records whose management was curtailed by inadequately trained staff, lack of records disposal and retention schedules, inadequate equipment and space, moderate policies and standards notwithstanding. While positive strides had been made in the most counties’ budgeting process especially towards 2019 /2020, there was need to enhance coordination between national and county departments, political independence, stakeholder involvement, funding process and spending against limited revenue to best meet the needs of the public. Reviewing and re-designing IFMIS system to capture information from PBB are the essential next steps for improving budgeting at the county level. Strict adherence to the Public Financial Management Acts and other County legislations and regulations was equally noted to be critical and most counties struggled with the implementation because of weak legislative and enforcement challenges, lack of political goodwill among others. Among various recommendations, the study recommended adoption of a financial management framework that would enhance service delivery at the county governments in Kenya. Keywords: Records, budgeting, regulation, financial management framework, County and service delivery. Title: ENHANCING FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT FOR SERVICE DELIVERY AT COUNTY GOVERNMENTS IN KENYA Author: Dr. Simeyo Otieno International Journal of Recent Research in Commerce Economics and Management (IJRRCEM) ISSN 2349-7807 Vol. 9, Issue 3, July 2022 - September 2022 Page No: 27-37 Paper Publications Website: www.paperpublications.org Published Date: 14-July-2022 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6833147 Paper Download Link (Source) https://www.paperpublications.org/upload/book/ENHANCING%20FINANCIAL%20MANAGEMENT-14072022-5.pdfInternational Journal of Recent Research in Commerce Economics and Management (IJRRCEM), ISSN 2349-7807, Paper Publications, Website: www.paperpublications.or