---

The study is an assessment of the role of non-state actors,popularly called Non-governmental organisations or the Third sector(in comparison with the state and private enterprises);how they mobilize the necessary resources for their work;how they plan or budget to utilize the resources and the need for these organisations to account to the people they serve and to the funders. The study established that a budget is an important requirement in the proposals used by NGOs to attract funding for their programmes and activities. NGOs perform evaluation to see if they have achieved their budgeted targets and they use variance analysis to establish the causes of over- budgeting and underbudgeting. They carry out monitoring and evaluation to follow up expenses and take corrective measures in time.Budget perfromance in NGOs is valued from a qualitaive rather than quantitaive perspective. it is recommended that as NGOs handle huge amounts of money they need requisite internal capacity for better record keeping,financial control,financial reporting and accountability.

---

Kiconco Jane Bibangambah is a lecturer and Head of department Business studies,Bishop Stuart University,Mbarara,Uganda.She also worked as a banker for seven years. She holds a BA degree in Economics and an MBA both from Makerere University,Kampala,Uganda.

---