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

ABSTRACT

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 Also, books, journals, papers presented at conference, magazines, unpublished handouts within the ministry/departments will be explored.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.