Fraud Detection for Public Sector Management in Africa: A Study of Nigerian Situation

Abstract

The research work is designed to analyze the incidence of fraud in the Nigeria public sector and the means of achieving a successful management of such fraud. The study is quantitative research. The population of the study consisted of thirty (30) ministries in Nigeria from which sample size was drawn to twenty-eight (28) ministries through judgemental sampling. Three hundred and ninety-two (392) copies of the questionnaire were distributed and three hundred and fifty (350) were filed and retrieved. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used in testing the hypotheses with the aid of SPSS17.0. It was found that, there is positive and significant relationship between management policies and Nigeria public sector fraud, fraud prevention and detection methods have influence on Nigeria public sector fraud, there is no strong internal control system in the Nigeria public sector and management integrity has influence on fraud prevention in the Nigeria public sector. The study recommends that, there is need for developing strong management policies, public sector should take advantage of modern accounting and auditing software to enhance resourceful and smooth detection of fraud, there need to shape up robust internal control system in the public sector and management integrity should be prescribed.