The study interrogated the relationship between
internal audit function and creative accounting practices in the public service
domain in Nigeria using Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as the
focal group. The study is based on the continuous cases of fraud in the public
service, evidenced by bogus financial reports inundating the Nigerian civil
service domain that is anchored on agency and information theories and shaped
via the survey approach, by gathering data from systematically sampled
respondents of the internal audit unit of MDAs based in Bayelsa State. Using
the SPSS tool to analyse the data collected via a structured questionnaire
which observed that the internal audit function has a bearing on creative
accounting practices in MDAs. Thus, this inferred that as the first line of
defence against financial fraud in the internal control context, an efficient
internal audit can certainly curb accounting information manipulations and this
forms the basis for recommending that; provide enabling environment for the
optimal functioning of the internal audit unit in all MDAs, imposition of
appropriate sanctions on staffers of MDAs that compromise the common good for
private interest as stewards of public resources, a stronger regulatory regime
with adequate enforcement machinery for ensuring compliance with accounting and
auditing standards should institutionalise in all MDAs in Nigeria, regular
training of audit staff to apprehend current developments in accounting
practice, as well as ensure the employment of qualified audit staff with the
requisite skills and appropriate remuneration.
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