DIGITAL ACCOUNTING SYSTEM AND FRAUD MITIGATION IN FEDERAL PUBLIC ENTERPRISES IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined digital accounting system and fraud mitigation in federal public enterprises in Rivers state, Nigeria. The specific objectives among others were; evaluate the effect of government integrated financial management information system (GIFMIS) on payroll fraud (PF). Determine the effect of treasury single account (TSA) on payroll fraud (PF). Investigate the relationship between integrated payroll on personnel information system (IPPIS) and payroll fraud (PF).Evaluate the effect of government integrated financial management information system (GIFMIS) on embezzlement of funds (EF). This study adopted correlational survey research design. The population is fifteen (15) federal public enterprises in Rivers State, Nigeria. The instrument for this study was questionnaires. The research questions were analyzed using Mean and Standard Deviation in the distributive statistics tables. The formulated hypotheses will be tested using the simple regression analysis with the aid of the SPSS platform. The findings of the study were that there is significant relationship between in between government integrated financial management information system and payroll fraud in Nigeria public enterprises. There is a significant relationship between in treasury single account and payroll fraud in Nigeria public enterprises. There is no significant relationship between in treasury single account and payroll fraud in Nigeria public enterprises. There is significant relationship between in government integrated financial management information system and embezzlement of funds in Nigeria public enterprises. Thus the recommendations among others are; staff should be trained with regards to the growing trend in ICT in order to be able to effectively utilize the IPPIS frameworks. Ministries, public enterprises and parastatals should regularly monitor their top administrative and management activities and prosecute any officer(s) found embezzling public funds and make the head of account unit answerable for any such misappropriation.  Again, training Bureaus of the federal civil service should be empowered to train accountants to specialize in forensic auditing. Upon completion of their studies, these accountants should be deployed to man all the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies government integrated financial management information system to continuous mitigating fraud in the public service. State and Local governments across the nation should endeavour to adopt the operation of single treasury account for effective and efficient management of public finance especially in the areas of fraud control and accurate accounting.