BEHAVIOURAL ASPECTS OF BUDGETING AND PUBLIC SECTOR BUDGETING PROCESS: EVIDENCE FROM KWARA STATE, NIGERIA
Budgeting, as a control mechanism, is one of the fiscal tools used by both public and private sector entities to achieve policies and objectives. However, the extend of its success depends very much on its acceptance and the behaviours of workers towards it. Consequently, poor employee attitude towards the budgeting process can hinder the attainment of organizational goals and policies. This paper examines the impact of behavioural aspect of budgeting in public sector budget setting process. Data was sourced through questionnaire administered on 120 staff of Kwara State Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). Descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution and percentages were used to describe the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, while inferential statistics via the use of Crobach Alpha statistics and Pearson correlation analysis were used to provide a check and balance test on the multicollinearity of variables. Multiple regression analysis was also used to analyze the data and to provide answer to the research objectives. The result shows that behavioural aspect of budgeting in public sector budget process is relevant and can hinder the attainment of government goals and policy. The study recommends among others that government should de-emphasize the use of measuring performance of the current budget process based on previous year budget performance. Also, unnecessary spending of budget allocation should be properly controlled during the supplementary budget and subsequent budget sessions and personal feelings of the executives should not be allowed to influence the budget setting process as this can result in dysfunctional behavior in public sector budgeting.
