Budgeting, donor assistance, co-funding and service delivery in local governments: a case study EU-MPP projects in Busia District

Abstract

The study investigated the relationship between Budgeting, Donor Assistance, Co-funding and Service Delivery in local governments. Specifically, the study sought to establish the relationship between; Co-funding and Service Delivery; Budgeting and Service Delivery; and the relationship between Donor Assistance and Service Delivery for which Busia district local government was used as a case study. A cross sectional correlation approach was employed to undertake the study. Stratified random sampling and disproportionate sampling technique involving a sample of 78 respondents was used to collect data about the study variables of budgeting, Donor assistance, co-funding and efficiency in service delivery. Different li-kert scale questions were used to measure the corresponding variables. Principal axis factor analysis with varimax rotation was conducted to extract the five components used to measure budgeting. Given the satisfactory cronbach's coefficient alpha for items measuring co-funding, donor Aid and efficiency in service delivery, items corresponding to the respective variables were summated to come up with a single factor for each variable. Spearman correlation analysis was used to determine the relationships between the desired variables and a regression mode estimated by least square's estimation method was employed to determine the factors significant for efficient service delivery. All the analysis was conducted using the statistical package for social scientists (SPSS). The findings revealed significant positive linear relationships between Budgeting, Donor Assistance, Co-funding and Service Delivery pair-wise. The results of the regression analysis revealed Co-funding to be the most significant predictor of efficiency in Service Delivery. This implies that donors should emphasize co-funding as a precondition to donor assistance. Given the significance of budgeting as a determinant of efficient service delivery, it is concluded that local governments should plan their services and contribute to project costs if they are to attract more project aid and deliver efficient services.