Evaluation Of Value For Money Audit, As A Tool For Fraud Control In The Public Sector

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Every sector of the economy both the private and the public sector has its own objectives and goals to achieve. For the public sector of the economy, their goal is to satisfy the social needs of the citizens and in the effort to achieve these purposes, auditing more often, play a vital role. The size and scope of these sectors have sometimes made it clear for the executor to exercise personal and first hand supervision of operation. It is in this light that value for money audit established by management is initiated, for any organization to carry out its business efficiently and effectively, there must be some factors that must be put in place for the smooth running of the organization like materials, machines, human labor and money e. t. c. Auditing is seen to play an intermediary function in between management and the resources of the organization. It is also fundamental to any business either the public or private sector, which will help the business to keep its adequate financial records. These financial records are kept in response to the demand by a system control which requires that the business enterprise must be carried out in an orderly manner, ensure adherence to management policies, safe guard the assets and secure possibly the completeness and accuracy of the records. Irrespective of these facts of system of control established by the management of the organization, fraud still thrives. In the early 1970s, the role of the state auditors began to change dramatically. Changes began in USA, Canada, and in several European countries. The representative of the people started demanding information on the efficiency and effectiveness of public expenditure. In Nigeria no specific legislation has been put in place to empower auditors to carryout value for money audit. However, the 1999 constitution section 88 (2) empowered both the two federal house and the state house of assembly to conduct investigation to expose corruption, inefficiency or waste on the execution or administration of law within the legislative competence and in the disbursement or administration of fraud appropriated by it. Therefore, fraud control has become increasingly important to managers of various governments in an organization. In general, financial statements fraud has always weakened investors’ confidence in both private and public sector investment. This is because 1 fraud against an organization reduces the net income by 1 and services to be provided to people in the case of public sector. However, value for money audit will be wildly concerned with the economy and efficiency of an organization and the effectiveness of achieving its desired objective thereby controlling fraud to evaluate the effectiveness of the internal control system within the organization.

(BRIEF REVIEW OF THE FIRM, POWER HOLDING COMPANY OF NIGERIA, P H C N)

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