Internal controls, financial accountability and service delivery in private health providers of Kampala District

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between internal controls, financial accountability, and service delivery in the private health sector in Uganda. This study was prompted by the wide spread discontent among the people for luck of basic health facilities like drugs and equipment despite government Public Private Partnership in health to improve access and quality of health service delivery. Even NGO’s charge high user fees such that patients still resort to government hospitals where there very high patient turn ups with big numbers not even attended to. A quantitative cross sectional survey design was used to collect data from a sample of 97 Health centres from five divisions in Kampala District. Stratified random sampling techniques were used in selecting the sample. Questionnaire was the main instrument of data collection and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for analysis. The findings of the study revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between the three variables studded (Internal Controls, Financial Accountability, and Service Delivery). Furthermore, the findings showed that both internal controls and financial accountability were significant predictors of service delivery. However, it was indicated that internal controls was the most significant predictor of service delivery as compared to financial accountability. In addition, it was revealed that there were also other predictor of service delivery apart from internal controls and financial accountability. The researcher recommends that the private health sector management/owners should establish/ strengthen their internal control systems in order to enhance financial accountability and hence ensure efficient, effective, and equitable service delivery. This can be accomplished through; policy implementation, recruiting competent/knowledgeable staff, putting in place systems to monitor/evaluate performance, and providing refresher courses on leadership and management of recourses to /management and staff, among others.