Accountability and Fraud Control in Haulage Business: A View on Managerial Procedure to Maximize Profit.

Abstract

Accounting and fraud control in a haulage (transport) organization has been a great problem to the third world countries in general. This paper, "Accountability and fraud control in haulage business", suggests ways of minimizing the effects of the problems of improper accounting records and continuous fraud in the haulage business. It is believe that an improvement in this regards will enhance the performance of the business and aid its continuity."Accountability" stems from late Latin accomptare (to account), a prefixed form of computare (to calculate), which in turn derived from putare (to reckon). While the word itself does not appear in English until its use in 13th century Norman England, the concept of account-giving has ancient roots in record keeping activities related to governance and money-lending systems that first developed in Ancient Egypt, Israel, Babylon, Greece, and later, Rome.Because many different individuals in large organizations contribute in many ways to the decisions and policies, it is difficult even in principle to identify who should be accountable for the results. This is what is known, following Thompson, as the problem of many hands. It creates a dilemma for accountability. If individuals are held accountable or responsible, individuals who could not have prevented the results are either unfairly punished, or they "take responsibility" in a symbolic ritual without suffering any consequences. If only organizations are held accountable, then all individuals in the organization are equally blameworthy or all are excused. Various solutions have been proposed. One is to broaden the criteria for individual responsibility so that individuals are held accountable for not anticipating failures in the organization. Another solution, recently proposed by Thompson, is to hold individuals accountable for the design of the organization, both retrospectively and prospectively.Interestingly, the haulage sector and logistics in Nigeria has experienced great transformation in the last several decades. This is as a result of globalization and the increasing need for companies to outsource no core services to specialist service providers.