THE EFFECTS OF BUDGETARY CONTROL IN ACHIEVEMENT OF CORPORATE OBJECTIVES A STUDY OF CHAMPION BREWERIES, UYO

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• BACKGROUND STATEMENT

One of the management major responsibilities is planning, managers all over the world are constantly faced with alternative choices, which requires effective decision making. For efficiency to be achieved, Planning is indispensible.

A successful organization makes both long term and short term plans. These plans set forth the objective of the organization and the proposed way of accomplishing them.

Ackot (1970) as contained in Diary (1985) defined planning as “The design of a designed future and effective way of accomplishing or bringing it about? Planning involves systematical way of looking into the future so that decision can be taken today which will bring to the company its desired results.

Diary (2004:587) has it that modern enterprises have shifted from short term plan to long term plan.

Sizer (1989) as contained in Dairy defines long term planning as systematically and formalized process for purposely directing and controlling future operation toward desired objectives for period extending beyond one year. Short-term planning or budgeting on the other hand must accept physical human and financial resources available to firms. These are to a considerate extent determined by the quality of the firms long large planning effort. The idea of budgeting comes  into existence or form when short term and intermediate or functional planning is considerable.

Budget is therefore defined as “A detailed and explicit financial plans of actions for specific future period both for individual limits within a firm and for the firm as a single entity (Anchod and Hope 1983).

Both individual and corporate entities make their budget showing the expected revenue and the expenditure incurred for a specific period of time. Budgeting involves the setting of targets and monitoring the actual performance against the anticipated performance. It is a technique which is widely used in business and which involves all levels of management and all functions of the organization.

The general objective of a budget is to provides a formal quantitative and authoritative  statement of a firm plans expressed in monetary terms.

Traditionally, budget was seen as a way of committing expenditure, hence great part of managements time is usually spent on allocation of funds. However, all has been that budgeting today merely show expected revenue and projected expenditure. This implies that budget protects and control the way management result to proposal brought before them. The essence of budgetary control is to ensure that actual performance are always compared with the standard set out at all times in order to find out at deviation exist or not. By control, we mean the process that measures current performance and guide towards some predetermine goals, budget control has to do with limiting or regulating the expenditure pattern as contained against some desired results determined in planning process.

The control element arises when negative variances are noted when concrete efforts are geared towards conformity. Budget control takes places by means of budget reports that compare the actual performances or result with planned objectives. That report provides management with feedback on operations.

• RESEARCH PROBLEM

This study is an attempt to investigate the effect of budgetary control in champion breweries. It tends to discover how champion breweries can make use of prepared budget to achieve effective and efficient results.

The study will specifically attempt to answer the following questions.

1. What are the cause of failure in  champion breweries
2. What budgetary techniques can give efficient result
3. How can effective budgetary control bring about efficient in champion breweries system
4. What effect can the poor application of budget and budgetary control be to champion breweries.
   • OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objectives of this study is to reveal the effect of budgetary control in the achievement of corporate objectives.

1. The study will examined the extent budgetary control has been used and the preferred method
2. The study will show the effect of organizational structure and output on the choice of budgetary control techniques.
3. To find out the problems associated with budgetary control in achievement of an organization
4. To analyze the weakness and other forms of deficiencies in the application of budgetary control system and how they affect budgets.
5. To identify the procedure for formulating, preparing and evaluating budgetary control in achieving corporate objective in organization

• RESEARCH QUESTIONS

In carrying this research work, the following questions were formulated as follows:

1. What are the importance of budget to an organization?
2. How does budgetary control effect the growth and goal attainment of an organization?
3. When is it necessary to prepare budgetary
4. Who are responsible for the preparation of budget
5. How does budgetary control help in the achievement of corporative objective of an organization?

• RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

The cause of carrying out this research, the following hypothesis are formulated for the study

Hypothesis 1

Ho: Budgetary control does not have any significant effect on achievement of corporate objectives.

Hi: Budgetary control has significant effect on achievement of corporate objectives.

Ho: Effective budgetary control improves the output of corporate objectives.

1.6     THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The importance of this study cannot be over emphasized. It is the opinion of the researcher that this study will be beneficial to the following:

1. The management and members of the board of directors of champion breweries plc uyo, on aiding their decision making and implementing process.
2. It is hope to aid in understanding the inherent benefits embedded in drawing up a budget for different purpose and writing within it.
3. It will contributes to the work of knowledge and further research
4. To other individuals, corporate bodies, scholars and practicing accountant who may be interested will also serves as a references materials to future researcher.

1.7     THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study center in a specific company champion breweries plc uyo. It is on the use of standards costing and variance analysis as a major budgetary control tool by the above company and how they effect the achievement of  the objectives.

1.8     LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

In the cause of this study there were certain variables that were identified as limiting factors.

Firstly, it was identified that budget and budgetary control issues are dominantly done at the managerial level, it was indeed very difficult to reach out to  a good number of top managers to obtain information relating to this study.

Again, the response by the respondents was very slow and reluctant at providing what the considered to be official secret to the researcher, further more, financial constraints also contributed to the limitation of the study. Nevertheless, the researcher endeavour to still conduct an acceptable study in spit of the aforementioned shortcoming .

1.9     DEFINITION OF TERMS AND ACRONYMS

The organization has it terminologies used during its operations. A clarification of such term becomes necessary and relevant in order to make this work more intelligent, some of these terms are:

Budget: It is financial and quantitative statement prepared and approve prior to be proposed during that period for the purpose of attaining a goals. Buyers and Holmes (1984).

Fixed budgeting: it is type of budget which does not give room to make provision for changes in the environment Anorld (1990)

Flexible Budgeting: This is the type of budget that cost budget balance expenditure of a certain goods or services source Olu (1982)

Flexible Budgeting: This is the type of budget that cost budget balance expenditure of a certain goods or services  Olu (1982)

Zero Based Budgeting (ZBB): A budget estimate is termed zero based were all levels of management are required to start form zero and estimates sales, production, and other operation data as through operation were being started for the first time. Olu (1982).

Increment Budgeting: This exist when each  level of management modifies last years budget figures and in the light of years budget figures develops expected changes and  budgeting for the coming years. Harper (1982).