Determinants of the Release of Imprest to Units within Public Institutions of Developing Countries : Evidence from University of Calabar, Nigeria

It is not clear why imprest funds which are solely used for the implementation of the overhead cost budget are not effectively released to spending units found within public institutions of developing countries. The current study was therefore, carried out to discover the reasons why academic departments of a public institution like Nigeria's university of calabar do not receive their monthly imprests every 9 out of 12 times per annum (i.e. imprest funds are not released 75 percent of the time!). Primary data were collected using a 5-point likert scale questionnaire while six hypotheses were formulated and tested for the study using multiple regressions. The study revealed that delay in the release of imprest funds to spending units of public institutions was due to management's lack of confidence in the spending units' overhead cost budgets, cumbersomeness of procedures for releasing imprest, late retirement of imprest and personal considerations while late budget approval and side-lining of units' finance officers had negligible or no association with the delay in the release of imprest. The study therefore, recommended that public institutions' managements should demonstrate commensurate confidence in their units' overhead cost budgets, adopt time-saving imprest procedures and place appropriate sanctions against late retirement of imprest and personal considerations