Code of conduct and ethics on perceived financial performance in Uganda Public Service: a case of Ministry of Education and Sports

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to establish the effect of the code of conduct and ethics on the financial performance in the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) of Uganda. The study was guided by the following objectives; to assess the structure of Code of Conduct and Ethics for the Ministry of Education and Sports; to examine the perceived financial performance in the Ministry of Education and Sports; and to establish the relationship between the Code of Conduct and ethics and the perceived financial performance of the Ministry of Education and Sports.

The cross sectional research design was selected for this study since it ably facilitated the collection of data from the different strata of respondents and helped the researcher to get the individual characteristics of the variables under study. The study used both primary and secondary sources of data. The data was collected using a self- administered questionnaire which had both open and close ended questions about the study variables. The data was collected, sorted and edited and thereafter analyzed using a Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS 18.0), in which Correlation and Regression tests were run to establish the relationship between the study variables.

Findings reveal that there is a significant positive relationship between code of conduct and Ethics, and perceived financial performance of the Ministry of Education of Sports (r = 0.715). Regression results show that the goodness of fit is satisfactory (Adjusted R2 = 0.534), implying that the regressors in the model explain about 53.4% of the variations in financial performance of the Ministry, leaving the 45.6% to other variables outside this study.

The study recommends that in order for the government of Uganda to achieve effective financial performance in the Ministry of Education and sports and other Ministries, then it must implement the Code of conduct and Ethics.