THE CONCEPT OF COST CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS A CASE STUDY OF ENUGU STATE MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC PLANNING
ABSTRACT
I have chosen to evaluate the concept of cost consciousness in the management of public funds with reference to Enugu State Ministry f Finance and Economic Planning, infact, after reading this work, he will understand the meaning of the cost consciousness and its usefulness in the management of public funds.
Another important thing to naked is that, Accountability, Financial releases, Management of funds etc, is attributed to cost Consciousness, Consequently, this research work has three chapters, chapter one dealt with the introduction, and chapter two is literature review, while chapter three is conclusion.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1Â Â Â Â Â Â BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Infact one should understand after reading this topic how to manage public funds, according to Adolph Wanger (1835-1917) who was a German Economist, who based his law of increasing state activities on historical facts primarily of German.
“To increase both intensively and extensively there was functional relationship between the growth of an economy and the growth of the government activities so that the governmental sectors grows faster than the economy.
The question then is, if the governmental expenditure is increasing intensively and extensively, how do the mangers of public funds react to this increase? Are they at the all conscious of the cost accompanying the increased expenditure? And what measures dots hey take to control these cost in order to reduce, if not to avoid the possible harmful incidental effects of public expenditure.
Again, complainants form the public and the report of national and state decisions together with the auditor generals report for many years have shown a contains loss of public funds in Enugu State.
At one time the report was on embezzlement, at another time, it was on the abandonment of public projects while at other times the cry was the non-viability of many public parastatals and investments.
But before we go into proper study of the problem, let me examine three key words in the topic. The concept of cost consciousness in the management of public funds.
These three key words are
(a)Â Â Â Â Â Â Cost
(b)Â Â Â Â Â Â Management and
(c)Â Â Â Â Â Â Funds.
And for proper understanding of the concept let me treat them one by one.
a. Cost: The term cost is commonly used by all, yet there exists not one unique concept of cost. Different cost concepts exist or different purposes.
A further complication arises when the same cost term is used to represent different purposes by different people.
The accountant, the manager etc. one may say that the cost of science equipment supplied by Enugu State Government to Secondary schools is ten million naira (N10, 000,000), it does not cannot any exact meaning.
Is it a cost to the purchaser, the government or to the manufacturer? Therefore, the term cost without a proper modifier does not convey a clear meaning. For a proper understanding of a cost concept, context in which it is used should also be made clear.
