AUDIT AND PERFORMANCE IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: A STUDY OF SELECTED STATE-OWENED PARASTATALS

Abstract

The study examined audit and performance in the public sector organizations in Rivers state. Thus, it investigated the extent to which auditing standards and legislations affect timeliness of financial report in state-owned parastatals, also the extent to which audit prevention, detection of frauds and errors affects growth and sustainability of state-owned parastatals and the extent to which value for money audit affects productivity of state-owned parastatal. The Research design used was survey design. The study adopted questionnaire method of instrumentation with a population of 170 and sample size of 119 staff comprising: Top management staffs, Accountants, other employees, Internal Auditors / Audit departments, and Public Relation Officers / Department of public sector organizations. The data were analyzed and interpreted in tabular discussion by simple percentage analyses while the hypotheses were tested using Chi-square (r²) statistical technique. The findings of the study were that auditing standards and legislations has greatly affected timeliness of financial reports in state-owned parastatals, also that audit prevention, detection of frauds and errors to a moderate extent has enhanced profitability in state-owned parastatals and that value for money audit to a great extent has enhanced effective internal control system in state-owned parastatal. Based on the findings of the study the following recommendations are made among others: that civil service commission should refuse to accept any known political party card carrying members to be appointed as managers or top staff in public organizations and that managers of public sector organizations should ensure an economical management of public funds in the public sector through adequate due process mechanism in order to improve the management of public funds in Rivers state.