A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF EXPENDITURE CONTROL METHODS IN GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATELY OWNED HOSPITALS. (A STUDY OF UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA TEACHING HOSPITAL, ENUGU AND TORONTO HOSPITAL ONITSHA

CHAPTER ONE

1. INTRODUCTION

1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Expenditure control or cost control is part of management control process, in every organisation.

This process is very important to any organisation be it profit making organisation or non-profit making organisation. Thus, lack of this practice in any organisation will cause misapplication of cash in cash disbursement process and this will create a very big problem leading the organisation into deficit and at an extreme case, the organisation might wind up. Many researches have been conducted in the reason for winding up of companies and organisation in which lack of expenditure control process had found responsible.

Expenditure control has been defined as the process by which managers utilize effectively and efficiently, the scarce resource in the achievement of the organisational goals. At this juncture, let us look at expenditure and control from separate perspective.

Expenditure is the total amount spent on the process of trying to achieve a particular organisational goal. Control means to order, limit, instruct or rule something or someone’s actions. It is used by either government officials or organisation managers to make restrictions on wages increases, immigrate credit and so on (which are all expenditure).

As regards, this research work, which is the comparative study of expenditure control methods in government and privately owned Hospitals, A study of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Enugu (UNTH) and Toronto Hospital and Maternity Onitsha; this implies a comparative study of non-profit making organisations, since UNTH is government owned Hospital while Toronto Hospital is privately owned Hospital as a category of profit making organisation. Non-profit making organisations are characterized by the following:

1. There is neither a conscious profit motive nor an expectation of earning net income.

1. No profit of any excess of revenue over expenditure is distributed to those who contributed support through taxes and voluntary donations.

2. 1.2      STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

    

    

    

   The problems encountered by the Government and privately owned Hospitals in expenditure control are as follows:

    

   The problem of daily control method and the vote card method. The problem encountered is to know the effective method to use in the two hospitals. Here, the problem encountered is to check whether the daily control method will be efficient and effective in the Government owned hospitals or whether the vote card method is the best.

    

   Another problem encountered by the hospitals in expenditure control is the problem of internal control. Internal control is the essential feature of an organisation, be it profit making or non-profit making, and it is expected to be well managed effectively and efficiently. Any

    

    

   problem or limitation of the internal control will pose a problem to the expenditure control of the organisation.

    

   Therefore, the above problems encountered by the two hospitals are the problems of expenditure control methods encountered by the government and privately owned hospitals by the government and privately owned hospitals that attracted the attention of the researcher.

    

   The problem definition in this research work is to investigate and analyse the different ways and methods by which expenditure is controlled in government owned hospitals and privately owned hospitals so that they will not run into deficit and liquidation. As a comparative study, two hospitals has been selected for the study, they are: University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Enugu (UNTH) for government owned Hospitals, and Toronto Hospital and Maternity Onitsha for privately owned hospitals.

    

   In this research, we study the different methods of expenditure control being adopted by these hospitals and their practical application and their level of effectiveness.

    

   This study will form a basis for our analysis which will help to answer some research questions.

   1.3      OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

    

    

   This study is conducted to:

    

    

    

3. 1. 1. Ascertain the expenditure control method adopted by the government and privately owned hospitals.

4.  

5. 1. 1. Establish whether government and privately owned hospitals are operating the same of different system of accounting.

6.  

7. 1. 1. Compare the expenditure method or model adopted by the privately owned hospitals with that of the government owned hospital if there is a difference.

8.  

9. 1. 1. Ascertain the efficiency and effectiveness of these expenditure control methods in the operation of the privately and government owned hospitals.

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11. 1. 1. Make recommendations based on the findings.

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13. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

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15. 1. What expenditure control methods are adopted in the two hospitals?

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17. 1. Do privately owned hospitals and government owned hospitals operate the same method of expenditure control?

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19. 1. Are there any similarities and differences in their method and application
20. 1. How efficient and effective are they to their users?

21.  

22. FORMULATION OF HYPOTHESIS

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    In this study, we will have two main types of hypothesis; the null hypothesis denoted by (H0) and Alternative hypothesis denoted by (H1). The null hypothesis is constructed such that it can be accepted if the alternative hypothesis is rejected.

     

    Accordingly, the researcher would examine the following hypothesis.

     

     

    HYPOTHESIS 1

     

     

    H0: Government and privately owned hospitals do not adopt the daily control method of expenditure control.

     

    H1: Government and privately owned hospitals adopt the daily control method of expenditure control.

     

    HYPOTHESIS 11

     

     

    H0: Government and privately owned hospitals do not use the same method of expenditure control.

    H1: Government and privately owned hospitals uses the same methods of expenditure control

     

    HYPOTHESIS 111

     

     

    H0: The methods of expenditure control used by government and privately owned hospitals are not effective and efficient.

     

    H1: The methods of expenditure control used by government and privately owned hospitals are effective and efficient.

     

    1.6      SIGNIFICANE OF THE STUDY

     

     

     

    Control has to be exercised over all aspect of a business organisation as a guard against any form of derailment from the organisations objective.

     

    Therefore, the need to install an effective and efficient expenditure control method in any orga

24. nisation be it profit making or non-profit oriented cannot be over emphasised. This is because lack of this practice (expenditure control) in any organisation (profit oriented or non-oriented) will cause misapplication of cash in cash disbursement exercise. Thus may create a very high problem which may lead the organisations into deficit and in extreme cases, the organisation may wind up.