EXTENT OF COMPLIANCE WITH GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL REGULATIONS IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION

ABSTRACT

The demands and expectations from local government councils over the years have been on the increase while delivering the dividend of democracy and good governance at the grassroots continues to dwindle owing to mismanagement and misappropriation of funds. As a result of the above factors, local government administrators are most times unable to meet up with their financial obligations in terms of payment of staff salaries, provision of social services and infrastructural development to the urban and rural dwellers. This has led the public to asking questions on the extent to which local government administrators comply with government financial regulations. It is on this note that this study seeks to determine the extent of compliance with government financial regulations in local government administration. Specifically, the study was carried out to determine: the extent of compliance with financial estimates regulations in local government administration in Enugu State, the extent of compliance with revenue collection procedures in local government administration in Enugu State, extent of compliance with expenditure procedures in local government administration in Enugu State and extent of compliance with financial statement regulation in local government administration in Enugu State.Four research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design and was conducted in the 17 Local Government Areas of Enugu State. The population for the study was 331 financial administrators in local government areas in Enugu State and due to the manageable nature of the population, no sample and sampling technique was conducted. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled Compliance with Government Financial Regulations Questionnaire (CGFRQ) which was face-validated by three research experts: two from the Department of Vocational Teacher Education (VTE) and one from Department of Public Administration and Local Government (PALG), all from the University of Nigeria,Nsukka. Cronbach Alpha reliability method was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument. The result yielded a high coefficient of 0.92. Three hundred and thirty one copies of the questionnaire were administered and retrieved from the respondents by the researcher with the help of three research assistants. The data collected for this study was analyzed using mean to answer the 4 research questions and standard deviation to determine the closeness or otherwise of the responses from the mean while Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistics was used to test the 4 null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance and at 327 degree of freedom with the use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.The findings of the study showed that financial administrators to a low extent comply with financial estimates regulations; revenue collection procedures, expenditure procedures, and financial statement regulations in local government administration in Enugu State. It was recommended among others that a monitoring body should be put in place by both the state and federal government to sanction all offending officers who would not comply with the estimation procedure stipulated in the Revised Financial
Memoranda.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

The worth of any local government is determined by the quality and quantity of services it renders to the people at the grassroots. Local governments are the third tier administrative structure in Nigeria, created to bring government closer to the people at the grassroots and render social services to the people (Agba, Ogwu and Chukwurah, 2013). According to Agi (2002), local government is a political authority set up by the federal government as subordinate authority for the purpose of dispensing or decentralizing political power. Akpan (2005) defined local government as a separate tier of government that enjoys some reasonable measures of autonomy, with elected representatives as officials especially in a democracy. Local government, therefore, is a political subdivision of a nation which is constituted by law and has sub-national control of local affairs including the power to impose taxes or to extract labour force for prescribed purposes. According to Oguonu (2004), the success and the effectiveness of local government depend largely on the financial resources available to the individual local governments and the way these finances are utilized by the local government administrators in the course of the administration.