ABSTRACT

Budgeting and budgetary control techniques are very important aspects of financial and operational planning tools that form the basic guides for achievement of desired organizational objectives. Many large Corporate enterprises normally utilize these tools by making them a priority before commencing a new year or periods activities, based on reasonable forecasts of the general economic environments and governmental. policy variables. But most often, many small and medium enterprise do• not bother making their new year plans with well formulated and articulated budget that cover most important areas of their activities, taking into account the key factors that drive or constrain them. This neglect of budgetary preparations as planning tool is virtually the cause of poor performance of such firms in terms of profitability and activity levels too. This study was carried out on five manufacturing firms in Aba Abia selected for the purpose. Having heighted on the literature aspects of the issue, one hundred and fifty management staff of the firms were issued with questionnaire; 138 properly completed and returned. The data analysed were applied in testing the key hypotheis - the inability of business organisations to adopt budgeting and budgetary techniques has no effect on management control; and that there is no significant relationship between effective use of budgeted activities and profitability of the business over time. The result of the tests, having adopted Simple Regression test technique with population proportion proved all positive with rejection of the Null Hypothesis. This Researcher therefore recommended a more improved, otherwise modernized approaches in budget formulation and preparation, using the services of information technology where necessary to achieve the best from the exercise.