Influence of monitoring and evaluation process on the performance of government sponsored projects in Kenya:a case of CDF funded projects in Machakos County.

Abstract

The study’s purposewas to evaluate the influence of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) process on the performance of Government Sponsored projects in Kenya. A case of Constituency Development Projects (CDF) Funded projects in Machakos countywas to be utilized. The study wasfounded on the main tools of Monitoring and Evaluation, which included stakeholder analysis, strategic plan, budgetary allocation and logical framework, and its objectives were;to evaluate the extent to which strategic plan influence the performance of CDF-funded projects in Machakos county,to evaluate the extent to which budgetary allocations influence the performance of CDF-funded projects in Machakos county,to establish the extent to which stakeholder analysis influence the performance of CDF-funded projects and to appraise the extent to which logical framework influence the performance of CDF projects in Machakos county. To meet these objectives, the study was carried out in Machakos County, which has eight constituencies currently referred to as sub-counties since the new constitution was promulgated in 2010. ThreeSub-counties namely Machakos,Mavoko and Kathiani were randomly sampled from the eight sub-counties. The CDF projects from those sub-countieswere then identified from each sub-county based on their accessibility and the resources that was available for the study. Major projects whose costs exceed one million were sampled for analysis. The study utiliseddescriptive survey research design and it includeda target population of 200 CDF projects in Machakos County.The study consistedof CDF Managers, Projects Co-coordinators and Project Beneficiaries from each CDF project.The type of projects sampled were community health centres,classrooms and boreholes.The data was collected using questionnaires and document analysis, and it utilisedstratifiedrandom sampling technique to select a sample of 67participants using Nassiuma’s Formula.The respondents were issued with questionnaire, which was then collected and analyzed. The data was then analyzed both inferentially and descriptively using the SPSS and Microsoft Excel programs and findings tabulated accordingly. Based on the findings, the proposed project recommendedthe methods that can be utilized to improve the (M&E) processes in Kenya.The findings showed that Monitoring & Evaluation tools have influence on CDF-funded projects performance. Precisely 72% noted that strategic plan had high influence over CDF-funded projects performance, 67% observed logical framework had high influence over CDF-fundedprojects performance and 64%noted that budgetary allocation had high influence over CDF-fundedprojects performance. Regarding stakeholder’s analysis, 73% said it had a significant influence on CDF-fundedproject performance.The study concluded that there is need to incorporate these tools in project management. The study recommended that all the concerned people involved in monitoring and evaluating CDF project performance should be empowered with skills and knowledge in order to grasp how monitoring and evaluation tools can be utilized. Parliamentary finance committee and CDF management should ensure ongoing projects are completed before initiating new projects, political leadership notwithstanding that normally interferes with funding.