ASSESSING THE MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC PROJECTS FINANCING IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

There are mammoth systemic failures in public projects such as project abandonment, cost overrun and monumental waste of resources worldwide. Despite the efforts of governments at various levels to provide basic infrastructure for her citizenry, the mismanagement of funds budgeted for such projects remain a bane to public projects delivery. This research focused on assessing the management of public projects finance in Ondo State, with a view to provide a framework that will promote effective service delivery, performance, value for money and socio-economic development. Survey method was adopted and 640 copies of 3 sets of questionnaire were distributed in collecting primary data and 462 copies (72%) were retrieved for analyses. Secondary data were obtained from Ministry of Budget and Bureau of Statistics and interviews were conducted on experienced respondents. Descriptive analyses were used in analysing data while inferential analyses such as Pearson Moment Correlation, linear regression, Factor analysis and Ordinal Regression among others were used in testing the hypotheses. Findings from linear regression reveal that there were significant relationships between sources of funds and projects’ delivery with R2 = .91 and P value = .000. Also, ordinal regression results reveal that Favour to Favour with P value = 0.39 and Bribery with P value = 0.07 were the most significant factors that affects public projects delivery. Similarly, T-test and ANOVA results of p value = 0.99 and 0.53 respectively revealed that there were no cost effectiveness and value for money in the application of public project funds. The study concludes that there is need for effective monitoring of project funds from inception to execution and strict compliance to institutional arrangement in managing public projects. The study therefore recommends the adoption of public projects delivery models for effective project delivery and pragmatic review in the financial management system.