Barriers to the Implementation of Forensic Accounting in selected Federal Government Parastatals in Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

Fraud has become very complicated in this era of technology, and increasingly difficult to detect, especially when it is collusive in nature and committed by top management who are capable of concealing it. It has thus, become relevant to fortify the practice forensic accounting which is one of the efforts that can be used for the detection and prevention in public sector. This is due to the fact that public sector auditors may not have the essential knowledge required in detecting, preventing or reducing fraud in Nigeria which is a major barrier to forensic accounting in the public sector. Therefore, the study examined barriers to the implementation of forensic accounting in selected federal government parastatals in southwest Nigeria. The study employed survey design using well-structured questionnaire. The population of the study comprises of all federal government parastatals in Nigeria while the study sample size comprises of selected forensic accountant of finance units of Department and Agencies in Osun, Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, and Ekiti States in Nigeria. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample size. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed for the purpose of the data analyse. Findings from the result of the mean ranking analysis revealed the identified barriers to the implementation of forensic accounting in government parastatals, the respondents claimed limited resources as a major barrier to the implementation of forensic accounting in government parastatals, and was ranked first (1st) with a weighted mean score of 3.4442. The other barriers were listed in descending order with their mean weighted scores.   Based on the summary of findings from the analysis of this study, it was concluded that addressing limited resources, interagency coordination and awareness problem were major barriers to effectively implement forensic accounting mechanisms in government parastatals.