Influence of financial resources management on project performance in public institutions: a case of Kigali city (2018-2022)

Abstract

In this study, we examine the impact of financial resource management on project performance. Projects in Kigali City were poorly implemented due to misappropriation of public funds and insufficient measurement of project performance, especially in subdivisions and surrounding villages, leading to project failure. In directing this research project, two purposes were set: to assess the impact of financial resource management planning on project performance in Kigali City and to examine the impact of financial resource control on project performance in Kigali City. Both financial literacy and resource dependency theories were used, furthermore in order to achieve these objectives, literature was reviewed on the subject matter including definitions of key concepts, conceptual review, theoretical framework, conceptual framework and research gap analysis, additionally the target population of the study was 312 employees of Kigali City and out of them a sample size of 175 employees were selected by using stratified sampling technique. Questionnaires, interview guides and documents were used as data collection tools. Data was processed through editing, coding and tabulation and the data also was analyzed by using descriptive statistics. Findings indicated that there is a significance relationship between financial resources management and City of Kigali’s project performance; and it was found that holding all the financial resources management to a constant zero, project performance of Kigali City will be 30.6 percent, a unit increase in the use of financial resource planning will lead to a 0.731% improvement in project performance in Kigali City, the use of financial resource management will lead to a 1% improvement in project performance in Kigali City.  The regression analysis revealed significant coefficients indicating the impact of financial resource management on project performance in Kigali City. With a constant of 0.346, when financial resource management is absent, the project performance is estimated to be 30.6%. For every unit increase in financial resource planning, there is a corresponding 0.731% rise in project performance (Beta = 0.731, t = 6.008, p < 0.001), and similarly, a 1% increase in financial resource control leads to enhanced project performance (Beta = 0.500, t = 2.550, p = 0.025). Notably, financial resource planning exerts the strongest influence on project performance, followed by financial resource control. Both variables demonstrated statistical significance, with p-values of 0.000 and 0.025 respectively, at a 95% confidence level. Thus, all factors examined are deemed significant (p < 0.05). Therefore, based on the findings, the researchers recommend that the public entity Kigali City should continuously ensure that it has financial control expertise to ensure organizational performance.