Participatory Budgeting and Local Revenue Generation in Local Governments of Uganda a Case Study of Rukungiri Municipality

Abstract

The study aimed at examining the effect of participatory budgeting on revenue generation in Rukungiri municipality. The study objectives were to; analyze the effect of participatory budget preparation and local revenue generation, to assess the effect of participatory budget implementation on local revenue generation, to examine the effect of citizens technical capacity in participatory budgeting on local revenue generation and to examine the moderator effect of Government regulatory and Budget Policy Frame work on participatory budgeting and local revenue generation in Rukungiri Municipality. The research adopted a case study design using both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

The target population was 112key stakeholders working in the three municipality divisions of Southern, Eastern and Western division. The sample size of 105 was drawn from the target population of employees and key stakeholders in the divisions. Data was collected by the use of questionnaire survey, document review and interview guide. 102 respondents returned the survey instruments completely filled representing a response rate of 97.1%. Data was analyzed by the use of computer aided SPSS version 20 data analysis software. Presentation and analysis of data was done by the use of tables, descriptive, correlation and regressional statistics.

Findings in this study indicate that: there exists a relatively weak positive and significant effect of participatory budget preparation on local revenue generation, there is an indication of participation by key stake holders but Budgeting is dominated by people who are not implementers of municipal programs, there is s a relatively weak positive and significant of Budget Implementation on local revenue, citizens are not fully involved in participatory budget implementation, citizens do not oversee and monitor the execution of the approved projects, there exists a moderate positive significant relationship between Citizens technical capacity in budgeting on local revenue generation, citizens invited for budgeting are not conversant with stages of participatory budgeting ,there is a moderating effect of Government regulatory and Budget Policy Frame work on budgeting and local revenue and budgetary documents are not accessible by all the stakeholders.

The researcher concludes that citizen participation in budgeting was not given much emphasis.

The researcher recommends that Participatory budgeting approach should be adopted at all sectors where citizens participate at every stage so as to own the budget, involve the citizens to oversee and monitor the execution of the approved projects, training and equipping the citizens with skills to ably participate in budgeting process, municipality should stick to proper use of Government Regulatory and Budget Policy Frame work and ensure that budget documents are accessible by all key stakeholders.

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