The Influence of Budgeting and Financial Reporting on Financial Accountability in Primary Education Programs in Uganda
John Nakabago 
& Costa Hofisi
Issue: Vol.5 No. 10 December 2024 Article 14 pp. 557 – 567
DOI : https://doi.org/10.38159/jelt.202451014 | Published online 30th December, 2024.
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Budgeting and financial reporting are widely acknowledged as crucial mechanisms for promoting the financial accountability of institutions for the resources entrusted to them. Financial statements enable delegated institutions like schools, to provide financial information to users (who include central governments, donors and citizens) as the principals, to evaluate how funds have been used to deliver services. This article aimed to investigate the effectiveness of budgeting and financial reporting in enhancing the financial accountability of primary education programs, especially the UPE capitation grant in Uganda. The study conducted an exploratory review of literature and used semi-structured interviews to collect data. The findings revealed several challenges which haunt the effectiveness of budgeting and financial reporting in enhancing financial accountability. The guidelines did not allow officials any flexibility in utilising the grant according to their priorities. The head teacher is solely responsible for producing the accountability statements yet they do not have the skills to write the books of accounts which means that accountability statements produced by the head teachers may not meet the accuracy and reliability requirements. The gap of deficiency of skills among the key actors is a dominant finding, that undermines the role players’ effectiveness in promoting accountability and performance of the capitation grant. The gaps discovered in the budgeting and financial reporting process imply that there is a need for sufficient budgeting and financial reporting skills that will enhance the approval process and monitoring of the budget for the capitation grant. State the contribution of this study to scholarship.
Keywords: Budgeting, Financial Reporting, Financial Accountability, Universal Primary Education Capitation Grant.
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Dr John Nakabago is the Director for Finance and Administration at the Uganda Management Institute in Uganda.
Costa Hofisi is a Professor and Founding Research Director of the Afrocentric Governance of Public Affairs at North-West University.
Nakabago, John and Costa Hofisi. “The Influence of Budgeting and Financial Reporting on Financial Accountability in Primary Education Programs in Uganda.” Journal of Education and Learning Technology 5, no.10 (2024): 557 – 567. https://doi.org/10.38159/jelt.202451014
© 2024 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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