STRATEGIES FOR THE MINIMIZATION OF AUDIT PROBLEMS IN PUBLIC SECTOR IN NIGERIA.

Accounting system including the system of auditing in the public sector of the Federation was patterned to the system obtainable from the British system due to colonial influence before Nigeria’s independence in October 1960. As a result of this, there is no significant difference between the civil service operational systems in Nigeria from the system run by the British Government. In view of the above historical evolution, ministries and parastatals were established by government at both federal and state levels. Federal and state audit department were also established to ensure that public fund committed to these ministries/parastatals are judiciously accounted for and the department is headed by Auditor General. In recent times, regardless of the reasonable objectives, reasonable changes in the civil service structure and operations in the country have given rise to such problems for auditors in the public or government account. It is these problems that gave rise to the research on the strategies for the abatement of audit problems in the public sector in Nigeria. The research will introduce questions that will provide questions that will provide solutions to these problems, how these problems have been affecting the performance of the ministries/department and how these problems have been obstructing the auditors from expressing valid opinion on the accounts audited. In the objective of the study, there’s an expression of audit lapses that are obtainable in government accounts and also to address such problems that may arise from the statement of the problems. On the sources of data, observations, interviews and questionnaires are to be applied. Also, books, journals, papers presented at conference, magazines, unpublished handouts within the ministry/departments will be explored. The statistical method for data analysis will be the simple chi square methods which the researcher considers simple to use and easy to understand. In conclusion, this research identifies the problems associated with government audit , how to solve or minimize them, how efficiency will be introduced into government accounting/auditing and how the users of government financial Statements will benefit from improved auditing standards and practices.

 

Having observed that Auditors in Nigeria have a lot of problems in the audit of government accounts, this research work will identify these audit problems which are inherent in the public sector of the economy and ways of minimizing them. The accounting system including the system of auditing in public sectors and specific organizations of the federation of Nigeria is an increasingly demanded part of accounting profession initially developed in the United Kingdom (Britain) and United States over hundred years ago (Rowan: September 1, 2010). 

In view of the historical background that Britain was Nigeria’s colonial master prior to her independence on 1st October, 1960 (Atlan:1980) there is no significant difference between the system operational in Nigeria today from the system emulated from the British Government. Therefore, various Ministries and Parastatals were established by Nigerian Government at both the Federal and State level while in each Ministries/Parastatals, accounts units were created which handles all accounting problems and systems of the Ministries/Parastatals, in order to ensure that the public funds committed to these ministries/parastatals are judiciously accounted for; the Federal/State Audit Department was established. This department is headed by the Auditor General of the Federation or State. The Audit Act of 1956 directs the Auditor General to prepare and transmit a special report to the National Assembly where it appears to him at anytime to be desirable and to make enquiries into any issue, programme, project, activity, function or transaction concerning fraud or misappropriation of public funds and property. 

Recently, there have been several changes in the civil service structure and specific organizations operational in Nigeria which brought a lot of problems in the audit of government accounts. Though, the changes were effected with reasonable objectives in view but still it has given rise to problems for the auditors in the audit of public or government which made this research work to focus on the study of the “strategies for the minimization of Audit problems in Nigeria.”

The distinctive problems that are inherent in the audit of government accounts are consequences of improper, poor and ineffective monitoring and accountability of funds. The accounting and auditing units in each level of governments whether Federal, State or Local governments including each ministries/department in public service, introduces good accounting principles and guidelines for proper recording of funds. These principles and guidelines as established, became very necessary to ensure appropriate procedures for monitoring and proper accountability of public funds and properties. 

In the crucial but narrow sense of Auditing as a control that ensures financial probity and guarantees against corruption, the Federal or State Audit Department must be fully involved in monitoring and accountability of funds. The Auditors demonstrates that these funds have been fully deployed having regard to economy efficiency and effectiveness. The traditional response to these problems have been to limit the role of accounting in the public service and in the country to matters of financial probity, the proper recording of transactions, the control of spending against the budget and the minimization of spending. But the auditors have not been able to achieve this because of the problems apparently caused by the recent structural changes in the public service. 

However, in the course of carrying out this research work, the underlisted questions will be addressed and determined whether:

The Researcher embarked on this study for the purpose of expressing lapses that are present in the audit of government accounts and public service. The objectives of this study includes the following:

This research will be of immense benefit to the following category of people in the Nigerian society:

This study has the following research questions from which hypothesis will be formulated. 

To carry out the work efficiently, it was deemed appropriate to formulate the following tentative hypotheses as a guide to choice of data for proper statistical treatment and as a framework for conclusions:

This study is designed to deal thoroughly with Government Accounting and Auditing in all areas including the problems inherent in public sector. However, in the course of this research i stumbled with series of constraints, pressure of work and non-availability of relevant materials that will aid this research work. 

Auditing in public sector has since the beginning of the profession, become systematically associated with a much wider sense of Accounting. Transparent and prudent financial management has come to be recognized as critical to the integrity of a country and for gaining and retaining the trust of its citizens, such integrity and trust are sometimes lacking in developing countries especially Nigeria. 

In carrying out this research work, I discovered that there’s need to Reconstruct the Auditing Standards, cash management, interest controls, debt management and to improve and modernize budgeting, accounting and reporting system so as to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in the economy.

The following terms are defined to show authority and scope of responsibility.