CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

At the onset of the oil boom in the 1970’s many were convince that the era of scarcity has

given way to abundant resources. A major problem was how to plan for the societies to be

confronted with the vast increases in material wealth and leisure.

The national priorities shifted rapidly as Nigerians embrace the increased material wealth

with poor planning and abundant waste. The cost of running the government enlarged

bureaucracy and social program increased tremendously as money realized from the oil boom

was squandered with impurity. Inflation affluence and ostentation life- style became the

habits of Nigerians. The Nigerian society became filled with stories of wrong practices such

as ghost workers on the payroll of Ministries Extra-ministerial departments and parastatals

fraud embezzlement and setting ablaze of offices sensitive documents and corruption are

found everywhere. Much more substantial or huge sums are lost in undetected frauds or those

that are for one reason or the other hushed up.

A decade later in the 1980’s the fall in oil prices presented a big blow on the Nigerian

Economy. There existed structurally weak control mechanism which creates a variety of

loopholes that have tended to facilitate and sustain corrupt practices. This is coupled with the

fact that there is a near total absence of the notion and ethics of accountability in the conduct

of public affairs in the country. The financial plight of the nations’ book on crises inflation

lack of liquidity and unfavorable balance of payment forced the government to introduce

several economic survival package such as: the economic stabilization and reconstruction of

policy by the Shagari administration and numerous reforms and commissions set up to bring

spending sanity on the populace to a lower level for improvement of the situation in the near

future. For these reasons accountability or the demand for public offices to give account of public resources be it funds properties public statement personal behaviors actions

performance will continue to be of great concern to government policy makers. Good

governance is essential part of a framework for economic and financial management which

includes macroeconomic stability commitment to social and economic equity and the

promotion of efficient institution through structural reforms such as trade liberalization and

domestic deregulation. Poor governance is as a result of incompetence ignorance pursuit of

economically inefficient ideologies or misguided economic models which is often linked to corruption.

As the public continues to feel an increasing painful economic pinch the management

practices of public officers will be under great scrutiny. If government and public officers

cannot account for the way they use resources then there will be a complete loss of

confidence and trust on program necessary resulting to general apathy and discontent among

the populace and even a breakdown of law and order. Thus the inherent problem facing the

government is to device ways and means of making public officers accountable to the

taxpayers for the scarce resources under their care and their actions while discharging their

duties. In essence accountability in public administration refers to efficient management of

resources for the general welfare of the citizens by government and its agencies. This idea

will be fully developed in the proceeding discussions.

However the modest intention of this paper is to examine several government policies aimed

at inability of accountability among public officers determine environmental factors that

militate against accountability and postulate strategies for prudent financial management and

propriety among officers. Pursuit of these objectives wills necessitates relevant discussions of

accountability corruption as a mechanism for controlling waste property values and

efficiency in the management of public of fund.

In Nigeria today accountability has become of great concern to both the government and the

taxpayers. Accountability to public administrators refers to prudence in financial material

management of scare resources. It connotes the idea of doing more with little and being able

to account for every aspect of the resources involved in the process. Serious consideration is

being given to the need to be more accountable for the often vast amounts of investment in

resources at the command of governments which exercise administrative and political

authority over the actions and affairs of political units of people. Government spending is a

very big business and the public demands to know whether the huge outlays of money are

being spent wisely for public interests. Accountability is a value for political system. It’s also

important for government in providing means of understanding how a program may fail and

finding ways that can make programs perform better.

To Max Weber accountability entails “mental revolution” of the workers so as to embrace

every fact of the efficiency theory. Thus accountability involves a process by which a public

officer can be able to give account of his performance through a process model of

input-process-output.

Accountability refers to a situation where; “a public officer takes charge of the property

belonging to the public. This implies that there is a contractual agreement either by verbal or

written or simply understood that a public officer must give an account of his actions in

regard to the property to the owner (the public government or his representatives).

If anything has bothered careful observers in recent times it is the manner in which public

finances and properties are wasted with impunity either by embezzlement arson accidents

mismanagement or inefficient application one can stop for a moment to wonder whether the

abandoned machineries equipment cars found littered all around our government houses and

the government ministries belong to one person would not the person immediately repair

them and put them back into use? The view expressed by Ejiofor in his writing is similar to

the above he stated thus “that smart messenger clerk administrator executive minister

commissioner governor and even head of state were found guilty over alleged crime and

maneuver of public fund material and resources”.

Likewise Ugwu in his own contribution said that civil service is notable for waste and

inefficiency which can be attributed to bureaucratic straight adherence to routine and

procedures”.

In the past cases of embezzlement involving millions of naira have been uncovered in

various ministries in the local government state which the attitude of public officers and

government towards the offence has been lukewarm. This in effect encourages more

embezzlement as punishments methods on offending public officer lesser are than the

offence committed. However the issue of accountability in Nigeria is a fundamental problem

because of the high level corruption in all levels of government in the country.

Most Nigerian have grown to accept and conceive public offices as a “money making

machine”. There is nothing new in public officers making millions of naira after one year in

office whereas his salary is not up to two hundred thousand naira annually. The extent to

which corruption has infested and in fact polluted our public institution is far unimaginable.

A panel constituted by the government was saying “there were 10 to 70 outstanding audit

quarries in connection with expenditure vouchers for federal non-accounting ministries and

local government covering the eight year period 1965 to 1972”. Ejiofor summarized the issue

on accountability in his theory as follows:

● The average Nigerian is corrupt dishonest nepotism tribalistic and lazy and all

the time seeking for the opportunity to defraud and cheat an employer.

● The Nigerian society does not reward hard work diligence objectivity

selflessness patience and inventiveness; the emphasis is on shortcuts

self-satisfactory now-now and quick-quick.

● The environment in Nigeria is not conducive for effective and efficient running of

organization(s) a pre-condition for National development.

In this study which is meant to show that no meaningful growth and development can take

place in Kaduna South local government of Kaduna state Nigeria? Without disciplined

public officers. Who can be accountable for their actions and behaviors and also for the

resources in their care?

Nation development and growth potentials are measured by the ability of its public officer’s

level of accountability both while in the office and long after when they have left office.

Hence accountability should be critically examined to provide some guide towards the

transformation of the economic growth and development in our country Nigeria.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Accountability has a very large effect on the Nigeria economic growth and development. In

Nigeria today accountability has become of great concern to both the government and the

taxpayers. Accountability in public administration refers to prudence in financial and material

management of scarce resources for the general welfare of the citizen. It is concerned with

the idea of doing more with little and being able to account for every aspect of the resources

involved in the process.

Many factors militate against accountability and public finance management in our nation.

These factors are instruments of mis-management of public funds instability of tenure

officers hereditary influences administrative loyalty and eye service syndrome and

institution inefficiency. The continuous poor accounting conduct in our public sector is

contributory to the under development of both local and the national as a whole. The

extravagant attitude exhibited by public officers who have amassed public funds and the

socio-economic effects of their acts have been a subject of national concern in recent time.

Thus the inherent problem facing the government is to device ways and means to making

public officers accountable. A number of public financial ethics have evolved to support the need for adequate accountability in the management of finance: these affirmative ethical

principles include in department integrity and objectively include all proper transaction from

the view point of generally accepted accounting principles and possession of competence and

technical standards.

From the above one can deduce that being accountable is a pre-condition for proper public

sector financial management.

1.3 Relevant Research Questions

1. What are the reasons for efficient accountability public finance management and the

causes of inefficient accountability in Kaduna south local government?

2. What is the implication of accountability and its effects on public finance

management in Kaduna south local government?

3. Whose responsibility is it to ensure that effective and efficient accounting system

operates or exists and what is the attitude of Nigerians towards accountability?

4. What are the prospects and remedy for appropriate accountability among public

officers in order to circumvent causes of inefficient accounting system?

1.4 Aim and Objective of Study

The aim and objectives of this study include:

i. To identify the various factors that militates against accountability and public finance

management in Kaduna south local government of Kaduna state of Nigeria.

ii. To determine the implication of accountability its effects on public finance

management in Kaduna South local government.

iii. To determine the attitude of Nigerians towards accountability

iv. Finally to suggest base on my findings some remedies for appropriate accountability

among public officers.

1.5 Research Hypotheses

1. A reduction in accountability public finance management may lead to economic

growth and development.

2. An increase in accountability public finance management will lead increase in

the economic growth and development.

1.6 Significance of the Study

Research data from this study with added more facts to the existing body of knowledge. It

will show the causes of poor accountability and public finance management attitude and lack

of proper adequate public sector accounting system of our public officers in Nigeria. This

study will also provide a way of tackling such problem.

It should be noted that accountability applies both to the obligation to perform work and to

exercise authority. This means that accountability is always an upward activity. This study

should be of immense importance to all the financial studies students the accounting students

need this study for their continuous learning while other departments need it for the

understanding of monetary policy. It can also be of valuable use to the following:-

1. To the student it will provide a compliment to a few existing text on monetary and

material resource accountability

2. To researchers it will serve as a valuable source of data

3. To the policy maker it highlights the mechanism or methods of enforcing

accountability in public administration against achieving set of goals and objective. It

also analyzes and suggests solution to the problems facing accountability and finance

management in public sector.

4. To the investors it serves as a guideline on the effect of accountability on public

sector of the economy in which their funds can be invested and finally

5. The study of accountability and public sector financial management will help the

bankers in analyzing the effect of government activities on the overall economy and

how it will improve the rate of economy growth and development in Nigeria.

1.7 Scope and Limitation of the Study

However this research is vividly restricted to Kaduna South local government area of

Kaduna state Nigeria. The research topic is broad theoretical and analytical in nature and

can be undertaken with respect to any part of the local government for example cash

management internal control performance and efficiency. This is the reason for the

limitation of the study in the below aspects.

The limitation of this study can be emphasized by the following:

i. General Financial management

ii. The restriction of data pertaining to public sector of the economy. It therefore

becomes difficult to assess the impact of accountability and financial management on

public administration.

iii. The erratic nature of government in Nigeria there is a great deal of instability in

government therefore economic financial development policies are never stable. It

makes accountability in public sector very difficult and impossible of achieving

proper public sector accounting management since it keeps changing with the advent

of each new government.

iv. The inability of the financial authority and administration to provide adequate

statistics on the performance of accountability measures adopted by them.

This is largely due to the problems of illegal actions of the officers or citizens who attempt to

thwart the effect of the government in the public sector.

1.8 Definition of Terms

There are terms which were frequently used in implementation operation and execution of

an efficient accountability in public sector and are defined and explained as follows:

a. Accountability: By 1966 the American Accounting Association interpreted

accounting as: the process of identifying measuring and communicating economic

information to permit informed judgments and decisions by the users of the

information. Accounting is also concerned with quantification of economic events in

money terms in order to collect record evaluate and communicate the results of past

events and to aid in decision-making. This definition embraces the local government

accounting. Pendley (1993) defined Accounting as a discipline for providing

information and evaluation of such information. For the purpose of this research the

objectives of accounting are as follows:

Make decision concerning the use of limited resources including the identification of

crucial decision areas and determination of objectives and goals.

Effectively directing the controlling of an organizations human and material resource.

Maintaining and reporting on the custodianship of resources and facilitating social

functions and controls.

b. Accounting system: According to Jawhar (1985) the accounting system includes the

various techniques and procedures used by the accountant (prepare) in measuring

describing and communicating financial data to users.

c. Accounting Policies: According to statements of accounting standards (SAS). These

are those bases rules in preparing and presenting financial statements judgment is

required in the choice of the accounting which is appropriate to the circumstance of an

enterprise and is best suited to present the true and fair view of its result and financial

position.

d. Economic Development: According to Augustine E. Ejili (1996) economic

development is a process whereby the real per capital income of a given economy

increases over a period of time. Economic development entails economic growth

accompanied with solid institutional political and other appreciable changes in the

economy.

e. Economic Growth: According to Augustine E. Ejili (1996) Economic growth is

quantitative increase in the output of commodities per head.

f. Internal Control: According to R.N. Goyal and C.B. Gaur (1982) internal control is a

wider term. Internal control which also includes internal check is the whole process or

system of control financial management and otherwise established by management to

enable business to function in an orderly manner. To ensure the security of its cash

and property as well as the keeping of accurate and realize records. The purpose of

internal control is to present errors and fraud or discover them in time if they occur.

g. Public Administration: According to Marshal Dirneck public administration is a

process concerned with what and how of government. The co-ordination of all

organized activities having as its purpose the implementation of public policy.