SOCIAL AUDIT AND PERFORMANCE OF NATIONAL GOVERNMENT CONSTITUENCY DEVELOPMENT FUND PROJECTS IN MANDERA COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

The projects funded using National Government Constituency Developed Fund in Kenya faces, time and cost overruns as well as quality issues which prompted this study to investigate the extent to which social audit has been conducted among government funded projects, and its effect on the performance taking a case of Mandera county. A descriptive approach was taken and the data was collected through  semi-structured questionnaire. The study targeted 88 respondents who comprised of National Government Constituency Developed Fund committee members, wards representatives, heads of departments such as education, works, water, health, finance and audit in the sub county as well as the beneficiaries of the projects. The data analysis procedure was thematic, descriptive and inferential statistics. In this case, mean, standard deviation and regressions were used. The study found out that social accountability had a positive and significant effect on performance of NGCDF projects in Mandera county; participatory budgeting had a positive and significant effect on performance of NGCDF projects in Mandera county and community-based monitoring of NGCDF projects was also positively and significantly associated with the performance of NGCDF projects in Mandera county. This implies that an improvement in any of the three indicators would lead to a significant improvement in delivery of NGCDF projects in Mandera county in terms of scope and budget. The study recommends the project steering committee and the NGCDF committee to promote social accountability in managing NGCDF projects in order to enhance efficiency and output. This can be done by availing of audit reports, termly development information, financial reports, development reports and information calling for public participation information to the public for ease of perusal and positive criticism. The study recommends the project steering committee and the NGCDF committee to promote participatory budgeting in NGCDF projects. This can be done by making arrangements to ensure that the stakeholders take part in coming up with projects of priority in their areas, availing information calling for participatory budgeting, participatory resource allocation for identified projects, participatory project identification and availability of public forums to exchange useful information regarding costs of projects. The study also recommends the project steering committee and the NGCDF committee to promote community-based monitoring of NGCDF projects. This can be done by development of a framework for community-based monitoring of NG-CDF projects, joint NG-CDF projects impact assessments, joint NG-CDF projects reviews, joint NG-CDF projects monitoring and the use of information from M & E.

Key Words : Social Accountability, Participatory Budgeting, Community-Based Monitoring, Performance of National Constituency Development Fund projects, Kenya