CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Misappropriation and embezzlement of public fund have been the talk of the day in our various government institutions. This case of inadequacy and inefficiency in the accountability of public fund had shown the force that people who are being entrusted with such funds shows a sort of non-challant attitude in carrying out the duties. This attitude had done a lot of harm to the growth of our various government establishments, it is clear that no institution, parastatals, or organization will grow without maintaining adequacy efficiency and accountability. However, it is also obvious that some organization has been closed up or folded up due to the fact that their funds were not adequately managed. Because of the inadequate accountability of public funds that some times, necessitate the checks, which is carried out by both internal and external at intervals.
This checks being carried out auditors both internal and external is called auditing, the reason for this is to find out the extent of accountability if any, and to advice the auditory on the steps and have best to control their funds. Based on the fact that Enugu State Education Commission, which the researcher has chosen as her case study is one of the numerous establishment controlled by Enugu State Government. There is the need for an indepth study to be carried out in Enugu State Education Commission which will service a sample size when analyzing the findings and making recommendations about public expenditure with special regard to Enugu State. However, in the course of this study work be carried out in findings the origin of the board, sources of funds to the board, ways in which these funds are expended and finally an attempt would be made to find out if the people entrusted with the boards funds, maintain adequate account of the fund kept under their controlled.
1.1 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The increase in inadequacy and inefficiency in the accountability of public expenditure, due to misappropriation to embezzlement of public funds has put to question that inequity of reliability of those entrusted with the accountability of public expenditure the non-challant attitude of government employees in the performance of their duties as related to accounting needs much to be desired, since they usually have on ugly nation that government fund belongs to nobody and as such they tend to exercise little or no care in making expenditure including the government. A lot of efforts put in place to correct this notion had little or no impact on these government employees, have the establishment of internal audit, investigation and compliance units by the state education commission to deal with such issues. It is necessary to state here that some of the courses behind inadequate accountability of public expenditure may be attributed to lateness in implementing reports issued by the above mentioned bodies or at times some of the reports are ignored without being implemented. It is based on the above reasons that this study is being embarked on to find out some of the factors that are militating against adequate accountability in the state education commission and to recommend on how best the situation could be reduced. 1
.2 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The objective of study is evaluate the role being played by Enugu State Education Commission with regard to extent of accountability of public expenditure. The objective is also aimed of identifying obstacles / difficulties encountered by the commission accounting personals as a result of achieving adequate accountability of public fund expenditure if any. Moreover, the study will give recommendation on how best public expenditure could be managed and maintained.
