Factors That Affect the Allocation and Utilization of Educational Project Budget in Benishangul Gumuz regional State
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Date
2007-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study attempted to identifY factors that affected education projects budget allocation and
utilization in Benishangul-Gumuz region in the past five years (2001/02 - 2005/06). It also tried
to identifY major problems that caused poor utilization of education projects budget and suggest
possible solutions that may help to alleviate the constraints.
The instruments used to undertake the study were questionnaire, interview and focus group
discussion. 228 participants were used to collect data through questionnaire, interviewandfocus
group discussion. A total of 165 copies of questionnaire were dispatched to 85 education experts
found in REB, ZED and WEOs and to 80 finance and economic development experts found in
BOFED, ZFEDD and WFEDOs. Out of the total copies of the questionnaire distributed, 75
copies from education experts and 64 Fom finance and economic development experts were
properly filled in and returned. The interview covered 29 officials from REB, BOFED, ZED,
ZFEDD, WEOs and WFEDo. Thefocus group discussion covered 60 community representatives
from 6 woredas. In addition to these primary sources, books, education statistical abstracts,
official reports and proclamations were used as secondary sources of data.
As far as major findings of the study are concerned, community participation in financing
education projects was very low; managerial and staff capability in education projects budget
management was low and greatly affected the proper utilization of projects budget; coordination
among education projects implementing bodies was found to be very weak, and education
projects budget allocated so far helped to increase access to education and hence supported the
achievements of the goals and objectives stated in the educational programmes. Another finding
is that major factors that contributed to the poor utilization of education projects budget were:
lack of sufficient monitoring and supervision, managerial and staff incapabilities, delays in
budget disbursement, late commencement of projects, weak coordination among implementing
bodies, and protracted civil works and material procurement processes. With respect to
allocation criteria, the finding revealed that the decisive factors to budget allocation, i.e., the
capacity of personnel in woredas and need assessment of the beneficiaries were mostly
disregarded during budget allocation to woredas. The summary section provides the details of
the above findings of the study. The main conclusions derived were poor utilization of education
projects budget was the common problem in the sector and budget allocation did not take into
account the most essential criteria of the assessment of the capacity of manpower and the needs
of the community in woredas. Finally, the last section of the study deals with a few
recommendations that are sought to be practical in solving pro.blems identified in the study.
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Keywords
Utilization of Educational Project Budget