Why Government Institutions in Developing Countries Cannot Account for Public Funds: Empirical Evidence from Cross River State of Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated why MDAs in African countries cannot account for public funds. A 5-point likert scale questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 62 staff members of State and Local government auditor-general’s offices who participated in the study. Five hypotheses were formulated and tested for the study using multiple regression. The study attributed the occurrence of unretired imprests in Cross River State MDAs to the following factors: lack of budgetary provisions, fraudulent delegation of imprest retirement and improper reimbursement of imprests and it was further revealed that off-budget expenditures and non-retirement of imprests by other heads of departments have little or no association with unretired imprests. The study therefore, recommended that overhead cost budgets of the MDAs be constantly revised and appropriate sanctions be levelled against MDA officials who engage in fraudulent delegation of accountability over the imprest funds and improper reimbursement of imprests.