Governance Factors and Mismanagement of Public Project Funds in Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper evaluates the governance factors that contribute to the mismanagement of public project funds in Nigeria. Governance factors are variables that influence the effective usage of project fund to achieve project delivery while Public projects relate to works done by the government to satisfy public interests. The target population for this study were the public sectors in Ondo State which comprises the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) with the total number of seventy-four (74) establishments in the state. Primary and secondary data were collected. Multiple regression analysis was used to analyse the effects of corruption, rule of law, bureaucracy and accountability as proxies for governance factors on public project delivery. Findings reveals that Public projects’ execution is fettered with different types of corrupt practices such as bribery, favour to favour, nepotism, percentage sharing and contract inflation in the study area, weaknesses and lapses were observed in bureaucracy, accountability and due process. Therefore, the study suggest among others, that there should be a political will to redress corruption dilemma, tightens accountability, due process and bureaucratic control in project environment.