Abstract:

This paper empirically investigated the impact of budget reforms on the quality of budget management in Nigeria. Theoretical considerations suggest that the ‘rule of the game’ have far reaching implication on the decision taken as well as the quality of outcome. In other words, improving the process and management of budgeting through reforms would ultimately translate into improved budgetary outcome. The Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) form the proxies for budget reforms while budget discipline (BDISC) and fiscal discipline (FDISC) were used as proxies for the quality of budgeting. Historical time series data representing 7years before and 7 years after the adoption of MTEF, and 5 years before and 5 years after the enactment of FRA were collect and analysed using the pre-test/post-test design of a Paired Sample T-test. The result favoured our initial proposition that budget reforms (MTEF and FRA) had not significantly impacted on the quality of budget management (BDISC and FDISC) in Nigeria. It was therefore recommended that government should provide the leadership and political will not only to enforce the provisions of FRA, MTEF and other reforms, but to sanction those that short circuit the system to their advantage.