Factors Influencing Project Funds Utilization in Water Service Boards in Kenya: the Case of Tana Water Services Board

Abstract

Kenya faces serious challenges with regards to provision of water services despite the efforts of investments provided in the past years by the Government and development partners since existing facilities have continued to deteriorate and fail to meet the demand of the increasing the population, particularly in many rural areas and the very rapidly growing settlements of the urban poor. This challenge is more so due to over reliance of external funding to build sustainable water systems. Poor project funds utilization makes many water projects not to see the day light. Therefore, this study set out to investigate factors affecting projects funds utilization in Water Service Boards in Kenya. It therefore focused on the influence of funding requirements, institutional capacity, management information systems and policy framework or project funds utilization. The study was conducted through a descriptive research design. The study targeted workers in Tana Water Service Board in Nyeri. The study was conducted through a census. Both primary and secondary data were used to collect information for the study. Descriptive statistics as well as inferential statistics was used for the analysis. This infers that institutional capacity contributes most to the project funds utilization followed by management information system, policy frame work and institutional capacity. This study also established that funds allocated to projects by the government and other organizations should be disbursed in time. The study also found that most of the projects were not staffed appropriately. This study therefore recommends that more staff should be employed to work in projects so as to staff projects appropriately.