VALUE FOR MONEY AUDIT AND PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIA

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Abstract

The study examined the value for money audit and public sector performance in Nigeria. The survey research design was adopted. The sample size is made of 70. The self designed questionnaire was used for data collection. The research questions were analysed with the used of mean and standard deviation while the research hypotheses were analysed with the used of Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. The finding of the study revealed that there is a significant relationship between accountability and Government expenditure, there is a significant relationship between Value for money work’, value for money audits, effectiveness and efficiency. Based on the finding of the study, it is recommended that the office of the Federal Audit Department should issue a sort of guidelines to all civil services to carryout value-for-money audit, employee should be adequately remunerates and provided with necessary incentives to enhance their performance, employee should be exposed to regular courses, seminars, workshop and symposia to update their working knowledge and the culture of annual review of performance against plan for the department as a whole should be encouraged.

Table of contents

Title pag     i

Cover Page ii

Declaration iii

Certification         iv

Dedication  v

Acknowledgement         vi

Abstract      vii

Table of contents  viii

List of tables        x

CHAPTER 1        1

INTRODUCTION         1

1.1 Background of The Study 1

1.2 Statement of the Problem  1

1.3 Objectives of The Study    2

1.4 Research Question   2

1.5 Research Hypothesis         3

1.6 Significance of the Study   3

1.7 Scope of the Study  4

1.8 Limitation of The Study    5

1.9 Definition of Terms 5

CHAPTER 2        7

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE   7

2.1   Conceptural Framework 7

2.1.1 Value-For-Money Audit Concept      7

2.1.2 Value For Money Auditing      9

2.1.3 Why Value For Money Audit? 10

2.1.4 Value For Money Auditing Process   12

2.1.5 Principles of Transparency and Accountability by Supreme          Audit……………………………………………………………………………12

2.1.6 THE Role of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIS) IN Promoting           PUBLIC………………………………….…………………………………….13

2.1.7 Concept of Public Accountability and Audit Accountability   14

2.1.8 Perspectives of Accountability 15

2.1.8 Principles of Effective Accountability         18

1.1.9 Public Sector Performance       19

2.1.10 Government Expenditure       21

2.2       Theoretical Review      22

2.2.1.  Theory of Audit Explosion (TEA)  22

2.2.2.  Political Theory of Fiscal Federalism        23

2.2.3.  Agency Theory   24

2.3     EMPIRICAL REVIEW  24

CHAPTER 3        31

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY      31

3.1    Research Design   31

3.2     Population of The Study         31

3.3     Sample and Sampling Techniques    32

3.4     Instrument of Data Collection 33

3.5     Model Specification       34

3.6    Data Analysis Techniques       34

CHAPTER 4        35

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS       35

4.1 Questionnaire Distribution and Retrieval:      35

4.2 Data Analysis and Interpretation         36

4.3 Descriptive Statistical Analysis  38

4.4 Hypotheses Testing 42

4.5 Discussion of Findings:     44

CHAPTER 5        46

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS   46

5.1 Summary of Findings        46

5.2 Conclusion     46

5.3 Recommendations   47

References  49

APPENDIX I       52

APPENDIX II      53

List of Tables

Table 4.2: Age of Respondents         36

Table 4.3: Sex of Respondents         36

Table 4.4: Academic Qualification Of Respondents      37

Table 4.5: Accountability and Transparency of Public Sector Performance        38

Table 4.6: Accountability and Government Expenditure of Public Sector Performance         39

Table 4.7: Internal Audit and Accountability of Public Sector Performance        40

Table 4.8: Internal Audit and Government Expenditure of Public Sector Performance 41

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

There has been a dramatic change in the field of public sector management throughout the world The pursuit of Value for Money (VfM) has become the holy grail of public sector management worldwide (Smith 2009). Within the context of public procurement, VfM is now an essential test against which procuring and disposing entities (PDEs) must justify procurement outcomes. Public service providers too are expected to demonstrate to their communities that they are delivering better value for money addressing not only efficiency but effectiveness in delivery. Central to the concept of VfM in the public sector organisations is the principle that public funds should be put to the best possible use and that those who conduct public business should be accountable for the economical, efficient and effective management of the resources entrusted to them. Public sector managers have an obligation to demonstrate that resources such as people, goods and money, are used as productively as possible, that is with due regard for VfM, in achieving the intended results.

The advent of the new public management (NPM) and managerialism approach to public sector governance, the traditional public sector audit role has also began to change, and VfM auditing is now a main requirement when assessing the performance of government systems.

Consequently public procurement audits (and the resulting reports) should include a VfM analysis in relation to the entity’s performance.

Although VfM auditing is relevant in both the private sector and public sector, it is the 

public sector that has taken the lead because of the special need for government organisations to demonstrate their accountability and their regard for economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the use of public funds and other resources. According

to the PPDA Act, 2003 (the law governing public procurements and disposal of public assets in Uganda), specifically section 48, all procurements and disposals should be conducted in a manner which promotes economy, efficiency and VfM, and maximise competition (section 46).

The principles underlying public procurement practices- nondiscrimination, transparency, accountability and fairness provide further emphasis regarding the criticality of this requirement. Although it may be easy to assess the extent to which some of these principles (e.g. non-discrimination, transparency, accountability, fairness and competition) have been demonstrated by a given entity, determining

whether VfM was achieved remains complex and a high level challenge. Indeed auditing public procurement processes has shown itself to be one of the most challenging and complex fields to audit.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Value for money audit has been found to be particularly useful in public sector where measurement of results achieved by public sector organizations is more subjective than in the private sector. In the private sector, measurement of the success of an enterprise is a function of the profit of such an enterprise. Its continuous existence depends entirely on the ability of the enterprises to make profit without which it will fold up. Whereas the private sector enterprises Endeavour to make profit in order to continue to remain in business. This particular urge is not very prevalent in public sector. Public sector enterprises are set up specifically to address various problems, some social, while some are economic. However, profit motive is not usually the main objective of setting up such bodies. Even though many of such enterprises are not strictly set up as profit- making organization, it is expected that they should not contribute an undue burden to the government. Hence, this study will be aimed at finding out the root cause of the public sector performance of the duty based on value for money audit.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The study intend to proffer solutions that would improve the importance of value-for-money audit. Its main objectives are as follows;

1.       To determine the impact of accountability on transparency of Public sector performance.

2.       To evaluate the impact of accountability on government expenditure.

3.       To determine the impact of internal audit on transparency on public sector performance

4.       To     evaluate the impact of internal audit on government expenditure

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION

The following are the research questions this study attempts as answer.

1.       To what extent does accountability affect transparency of public sector performance?

2.       To what extent does accountability affect government expenditure?

3.       To what      extent does internal audit        affect accountability of public sector performance?

4.       To what extent does internal audit affect government expenditure?

1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

In order to have a clear test and validity of this study, the following hypothesis were formula.

H01: There is no significant relationship between accountability and transparency in the public sector performance.

H02: There is no significant relationship between accountability and Government expenditure in public sector.

H03: There is no significant relationship between internal audit and transparency in public sector.

H04: There is no significant relationship between internal audit and government expenditure in public sector

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This research is conducted to stress on the impact of value- for-money audit in our socio-economic activities.

This research play a vital role in performance evaluation in government i.e. its conclusion can help the government funds which are lost in numerous programmers, through the award of contract and it is prudent that and efficient and effective audit should be carried out. The submission of a onetime audit-general of Lagos State while answering question concerning the use of tax consultant says “the issue of percentage i.e 10 runs against universally accepted standard of between two to seven percent”. It is worth mentioning here that not only in contracts that huge amounts of money have been sunk, but there are some other areas such as payment of salaries, transportation allowance, medical allowance etc. that substantial amount have been paid to non- existing workers and contracts.

This is due to the non-integration of value-for-money audit in the scheme of the public sector. It could add to the existing stock of knowledge in the area of auditing which has to do with value-for-money. However. The need for value-for-money audit under the auspices of comprehensive auditing has been recognized by the federal audit department. A division has been created by the department to investigated the relevance and applicability of value-for- money in the public sector.

It serves as a bed rock in which other scholarly endure could take off from, by this other researcher can learn which procedures and instrument have proved useful; shed light on way to efficiency the effectiveness of data analysis.

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This field of study is such that the researcher will have to limit himself to reasonable scope of study

The concept of value-for-money audit in public sector is too vast; in fact it runs through all ministries and department of Rivers State civil service. Therefore the scope in narrowed down to in internal audit of section of accounts and audit department of ministry of finance and economic planning to save the researcher the agony of time constraint.

1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Every study has certain limitation which falls short of the idea which the researcher has established or recognized (Baridam, 1995: 195). This is therefore not an exception.

A fundamental problem encountered in the course of carrying out this present study from the non-chalets and suspicious attitude of most (officer) respondents. Consequently, while some officers were hesitant to grant me access to their records, others do not grant me audience.

The lack of related literature to dram from, this is because not much work has been done in this area of study.

Another major limitation of this study is due to financial constraint and time needed to complete this work.

The questionnaire method adopted as the major collection instrument has its own limitation

1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Some terms are defined as used in work to ease understanding.

1.       Audit: An activity involving the gathering evaluation evidence relating to the validity of statement about economic and financial performance and conduct.

2.       Auditor: An outsider who look into, enquire and review the account of stewardship of management and to express and opinion as to the fairness or otherwise of the said account.

3.       Public sector: All organization, which are not privately owned and operated but, which are established, run and financed by the government on behalf of the public.

4.       Effectiveness: A relationship between achieved output and optimal output.

5.       Evaluation: When management judges the implication of various past, present and future events as it affect the organization profit

6.       Economy: A relationship between standard input cost and actual input cost of an organization or programmer.

7.       Efficiency: A relationship between optimal output and standard input costs.

Internal audit: Is described as review of operation and records, sometimes continuous undertaken within a business by specifically assigned staff.

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