Forensic Accounting and Fraud Mitigation in Nigeria Public Sector

Abstract

The study sought to ascertain the relationship between forensic accounting and fraud mitigation in Nigeria public sector. Relaying on the survey design and a population consisting of federal government agencies, used the purposive (personal judgment) sampling methos to select 153 staffs from 20 selected federal government agencies in Nigeria. Primary data were obtained through a structured five-point Likert scaled designed questionnaire. Out of the 153 questionnaires distributed to respondents, 140 was returned and used for the analyses. The study used the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient statistical tools with the aid of statistical package for social science (SPSS Version 20) for the data analyses and the test the formulated hypotheses. The result showed strong positive significant relationship between investigative accounting and fraud mitigation with r value of 0.869 and significant value of 0.000. The result also showed a strong positive significant relationship between litigation support and fraud mitigation with r value of 0.896 and significant value of 0.000. The study recommends that government should undertake regular investigative accounting to assist in identifying red flags and ensure that frauds are mitigated in Nigeria public sector, and also, the government should involve forensic accountants to render litigation service to its agencies, MDAs, parastatals as this is expected to mitigate fraud in Nigeria public sector. The study concludes that there is a strong significant positive relationship between forensic accounting and fraud mitigation in Nigeria public sector.