Barangay Officials’ Knowledge and Fiscal Responsibility and Accountability

This study examined the budgeting performance of barangay officials through a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, integrating quantitative measures of fiscal knowledge and capability with qualitative accounts of operational challenges. Survey data (Likert-scaled competency scores ranging from 3.05 to 3.90 out of 5) were collected from barangay officials, while semi-structured interviews and document reviews explored contextual constraints across the full budgeting cycle—planning, preparation, approval, execution, monitoring, and reporting. Findings reveal a predominantly convergent parallel pattern: officials demonstrate a foundational-to-moderately high understanding of formal budget processes and are generally able to comply with routine requirements. However, both strands of evidence converge on critical deficits in detailed cost estimation, performance-oriented monitoring, and disclosure-quality reporting, driven by limited technical proficiency, weak information systems, fragmented institutional support, and politicized coordination environments. A mild but important divergence emerges in self-assessment, where high self-rated performance coexists with qualitatively documented process weaknesses, underscoring the inflationary bias of self-report measures in public financial management. Theoretically, the study advances capacity–context interaction models by demonstrating that local fiscal performance is a joint function of individual competence and the enabling environment, and by evidencing the need for multi-method, multi-indicator evaluation frameworks. Practically, the results justify a dual-track reform agenda: (1) targeted, practice-based capacity building in analytic budgeting, variance analysis, and evidence-based reporting; and (2) institutional strengthening through standardized tools, routinized technical backstopping, streamlined approval and reporting interfaces, and enhanced transparency mechanisms. Together, these interventions can move barangay budgeting toward greater fiscal discipline, allocative efficiency, and accountability.