An Examination of the Effectiveness of Auditing of Local Government Financial Reports in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Abstract

This research examines the effectiveness of auditing of local government accounts in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. To achieve the objective of the study, primary and secondary data were used. The secondary data include journals, textbooks and government publications and the primary data was collected using a well structured and tested questionnaire from two hundred and forty six respondents in the eight local government of Bayelsa State. The respondents were stratified to create subsets among different departments and then random sampling technique was used to select the number of subjects from each subset to collect data. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and spearman rank order correlation coefficient. The findings of the study suggest that auditing ensures proper stewardship reporting, administrative interference and inadequate qualified manpower does retard proper auditing of local government accounts in Bayelsa State. The study concludes that auditing of local government account is fundamental for the effective and efficient stewardship reporting by council officials without political and administrative interference of the financial activities of the councils with adequately qualified audit staff. Thus the study recommends among others that objectivity, integrity and transparency should be observed by auditors and council officials; restructuring of the various anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria; and improvement of auditors remuneration and fringe benefits to enhance performance.

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