| dc.description.abstract | The county governments continue to face challenges around the world. In the County Government of Nakuru,
the auditor general continues to document diverse financial performance challenges. The purpose of this study
was to examine the effect of financial management practices on the financial performance of county
governments in Kenya. The following specific objectives were persued; to examine the role of internal auditing
on the financial performance of County Government of Nakuru, to establish the role of internal controls on the
financial performance of County Government of Nakuru, to examine the role of budgeting on the financial
performance of County Government of Nakuru and to examine the influence of account payables management
on the financial performance of County Government of Nakuru. The study was based on the agency theory and
the resource based theory. The study targeted 128 respondents who were employees in auditing, internal
controls, budgeting and account receivables. A sample size of 97 respondents derived through Yaro Yamane
formula was used in the study. This proposed study utilized structured questionnaires to obtain data for the
study. The stratified sampling indicates that within the auditing, internal controls, budgeting and account
receivables 19, 18, 24 and 36 respondents formed the sample, respectively. The study established that financial
performance was strongly and significantly (p<0.05) related to internal auditing (r=0.769), internal controls
(r=0.795), budgeting (r=0.671), and account payables (r=0.759). The study further established that 76.5% of
the changes in the financial performance of county government of Nakuru is due to changes in account
payables, internal controls, internal auditing, budgeting. It was concluded that there was a statistically
significant relationship between financial performance of County Government of Nakuru and account payables,
internal controls, internal auditing, budgeting. This study is of great value in highlighting importance of
financial management practices in boosting financial performance of county governments. The findings of this
study are expected to help county governments in managing their funds, address internals control measures,
establish the most efficient ways for budgeting, and monitor their borrowing. The study findings add to the
limited literature on financial management practices on which future researchers in this subject area can base
their studies. | en_US |
