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mini project for computer science students
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This is to certify that this research was carried out by Anuma Franklin Chike of the Department of Computer Science.
Anuma Franklin. C Date
My First profound gratitude is to Almighty God who gave me the wisdom, courage, Protection, guidance and opportunity to witness the end of my Post- graduate Diploma programme successfully.
I wish to express my unreserved and special appreciation to my erudite supervisor Mr. C. Ibebuogu for he not only giving useful suggestion but also the encouragement and appropriate guidance that made this seemingly endless attempt a wonderful success.
Sir I am grateful. It’s my sincere prayer that God Almighty will replenish you and your family abundantly.
Also my profound gratitude goes to the head of department, Dr. C.M.Igbe Computer Science, Imo State University for his immense contribution to this research work, Sir may the good lord strengthen you in all your endeavours.
I will also like to thank people like Sam-Ekeke Doris, Ahamefula Wilson, Elizabeth Agayie, Emelife Valetine and non the least my parents Engr.and Mrs.A.A.Anuma for their emotional and financial assistance.
Finally, a special thanks goes to all my friends and colleagues at school whose names are too numerous to mention for their immense contributions and companionship.
The objective of this work is to design and develop a computer based budgeting and monitoring system that can track the income and expenditure of a local government. My motivation of carrying out this project is due to the delay experienced in releasing and implementing the budgets of the various arms of ministries in a local government, the inaccuracy in budget preparation techniques and multiple errors in manual ways of budget system. In order to solve the above problem, we are adopting the structural system analysis design methodology (SSADM) which will be used to model the structure that solves the problem and the structured method used is the top – down design module. The software will be coded with the visual basic programming language that run on Wampserver database application. The expected result of this project will be a computerized system that will help provide an understanding of the budget process at the local level, provide an understanding of the processes of transfers for budget implementation at the local level and avoid wasteful spending through budgets deficits.
APPENDICES
Program Codes Sample Program Outputs List of Figures
The word “Budget” was derived from French word “Bourgettee” meaning leather bag or wallet. The term was used for the first time in 1733 by Mr. Walpole, the British chancellor of exchequer, because he used to carry a leather bag containing papers on the financial plans for the country to the House of Commons. So when he set off to place his financial plans before the house, he used to open his association of the financial plans with the “Bourgettees” that the financial statement of the country has come to be known as Budget. A budget is defined as the formal expression of plans, goals, and objectives of management that covers all aspects of operations for a designated time period. It is a tool for providing targets and direction. Budgets provide control over the immediate environment, it also helps to master the financial aspects of the job and department, and solve problems before they occur. Budgets focus on the importance of evaluating alternative actions before decisions actually are implemented. Budgeting has come to be accepted as an efficient method of short- term planning and control. It is employed, no doubt, in large business houses, but even the small businesses are using it at least in some informal manner. Through the budgets, a business wants to know clearly as to what it proposes to do during an accounting period or a part thereof. Budgeting allocates funds to achieve desired outcomes. A budget may span any period of time. It may be short term (one year or less, which is usually the case), intermediate term (two to three years), or long term (three years or more). Short-term budgets provide greater detail and specifics. Intermediate budgets
the estimates. Budgets link the nonfinancial plans and controls that constitute daily managerial operations with the corresponding plans and controls designed to accomplish satisfactory earnings and financial position.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Over the years, manual method of budgeting has been used. This method has its problems. It has been proven to be very ineffective and inefficient. Some of the problems associated are:
This study aims at developing an effective and efficient budgeting system for a local government. Hypothetically the objectives are:
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
For an organization to survive it must plan ahead the amount it will receive and how it will allocate the money to different departments of such an organization and how such money should be spent. For local governments, this work on automating the budgetary system could serve as an eye opener to them by carefully exposing those problems inherent in budgets analysis and provide recommendable solutions; this would help them to avoid wasteful spending through budgets deficits. The world has moved from primitive stone ages to industrial age and recently moved to information technology age. Computer based budgeting is the fundamental and the bedrock for information technology (IT). Because of the importance of the information technology (IT) age, organizations are converting from the manual based processes to the computer based methods. The study would among others seek to: (i) Provide an understanding of the budget process at the local level;
the result gotten may not be free from bias thoughts and there is no total surety of respondent answers to the questioners.
1.7 DEFINITION OF TECHNICAL TERMS
it now represents on average more than 20 per cent of the labour force in the country. Clifton (2008) According to Abu-Musa (2006), In transition economies, in addition to the fact that all economic activities and services were performed by public organizations’, the adoption of policies under which the state was obliged to provide employment to its citizens have contributed to a rapid expansion of government personnel. These policies were implemented by not only state-owned enterprises, but also by the government ministries and agencies. A survey by Siponen (2007), made it clear that in transition countries, the growth in the number of government employees has resulted in greater portions of government expenditures being allocated to salaries and wages, and attention focused on problems encountered in formulating and controlling personnel expenditures. Simultaneously, growth in personnel numbers and increased influence of civil service unions has created new realities in government budget formulation and implementation. A study by Ernst and Young (2004), the necessity of reducing government deficits in almost all countries has called for downscaling of the government wage bill. Since the 1990s, this aspect has become a central point in the economic policy-making of almost all countries. It appears that these phenomena now pose new challenges to decision-makers in transition economies as well. These challenges refer to the reduction in the number of posts and active manpower, as well as to revisions in government pay structure. The co-ordination and monitoring of government personnel policies and controlling their associated costs in the government organizations’ have always been a central point in public administration. In different countries, over the decades, several organizational and procedural institutions have been created and a number of models have been developed for managing personnel expenditures.
According to McAdams (2004), theoretically there are two main types of control and co-ordination tasks in managing government personnel expenditures, they are: a) Managerial control : this generally concerns technical aspects of pay structure for establishing parity in payments, organization and staffing for micromanagement improvement in government services and more comprehensively issues regarding working relations between government and its employees which are normally covered by a Civil Service Law. Enwere (2002). b) Budgetary control: this mainly concerns financial aspects of pay structure for macroeconomic and fiscal management purposes, sectorial policy setting; as well as economy and efficiency in government operations for programme management purposes. Enwere (2002). In practice according to Dhillon (2009), however, certain components of these two groups of control measures are very much interrelated, and, therefore, cannot be easily targeted and administered in separation. For example, it is most unrealistic to have a central personnel management office to design or approve an organization and create posts for a given ministry, because it lacks the knowledge and mandate for coordinating policies and operations in the sector in which the ministry is involved. Likewise, such a design has little working value if the designer has no knowledge of the government's macroeconomic and fiscal policies. On the other hand, if a finance ministry has no co-ordination role and no knowledge of the financial aspects of pay structure of a civil service, it would not be able to design and implement a meaningful macroeconomic and fiscal policy. This, however, should not imply that all managerial control measures can technically be handled by finance ministries.
Budgetary Control
Budgetary Control is the process of establishment of budgets relating to various activities and comparing the budgeted figures with the actual performance for arriving at deviations, if any. Accordingly, there cannot be budgetary control without budgets. Budgetary Control is a system which uses budgets as a means of planning and controlling. Aristigueta (2009). According to OECD (2001), Budgetary control is defined by Terminology as the establishment of budgets relating to the responsibilities of executives to the requirements of a policy and the continuous comparison of actual with the budgeted results, either to secure by individual actions the objectives of that policy or to provide a basis for its revision. Brown and Howard (2012) defines budgetary control is "a system of controlling costs which includes the preparation of budgets, co-ordinating the department and establishing responsibilities, comparing actual performance with the budgeted and acting upon results to achieve maximum profitability." The above definitions reveal the following essentials of budgetary control: (1) Establishment of objectives for each function and section of the organization. (2) Comparison of actual performance with budget. (3) Ascertainment of the causes for such deviations of actual from the budgeted performance. (4) Taking suitable corrective action from different available alternatives to achieve the desired objectives. Requisites for Effective Budgetary Control Osborne (2002) stipulated the following as the requisites for effective budgetary control: (1) Clear cut objectives and goals should be well defined.
(2) The ultimate objective of realizing maximum benefits should always be kept uppermost. (3) There should be a budget manual which contains all details regarding plan and procedures for its execution. It should also specify the time table for budget preparation for approval, details about responsibility, cost centers etc. (4) Budget committee should be set up for budget preparation and efficient execution of the plan. (5) A budget should always be related to a specified time period. Conditions for sound budget preparation Critically analyzing Davis (2006), sound annual budget preparation calls for making early decisions and for avoiding a number of questionable practices. They include: (a) The need for early decisions: By definition, preparing the budget entails hard choices. These can be made, at a cost, or avoided, at a far greater cost. It is important that the necessary trade-offs be made explicitly when formulating the budget. This will permit a smooth implementation of priority programs, and avoid disrupting program management during budget execution. (b)The need for a hard constraint: annual budget preparation must be framed within a sound macroeconomic framework, and should be organized along the following lines: (i) A top-down approach, consisting of: (a) defining aggregate resources available for public spending; (b) establishing sectorial spending limits that fits government priorities; and (c) making these spending limits known to line ministries. (ii) A bottom-up approach, consisting of formulating and costing sectorial spending programs within the sectorial spending limits; and
