FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND PERFORMANCE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT A CASE OF GATSIBO DISTRICT

Financial accountability has been one of the most prevalent issues for worldwide for a long time. The objectives of this study sought to establish the extent to which financial accountability influencelocal government performance. The specific objectives included to examine the effect of budgetary control system on the performance of Gatsibo District to examine the effect of public expenditure tracking survey on the performance of Gatsibo District and to determine the relationship between adequate internal control system on the performance of Gatsibo District. This study has couple of benefitsto the researcher herself, students and local government stakeholders by anticipating some modalities that could eventually bridge the challenges facing policy implementers in the enhancement of practice of financial accountability. The target population and sample size were 85 Gatsibo District staff. Correlational research designwas used and quantitative approaches to data collection and analysis were employed. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Scientist (SPSS).The Pearson correlation analysis reported that budgetary control system (r=0.666, p=0.000), public expenditure tracking survey (r=0.733, p=0.000) and internal control systems (r=0.748, p=0.000) were all positive and statistically significant relationship with performance of local governments in Rwanda since their p-values were less than 5%. The regression analysis showed budgetary control system (β1=0.219, p=0.001), public expenditure tracking survey (β2=0.166, p=0.003) and internal control systems (β3=0.307, p=0.000) were positive and statistically significant. This is because the p-value was less than 5%.Hence, the researcher recommend that public servants should embrace the financial accountability practices to improve service delivery to the community as well as improve their overall performance.