Embezzlement Of Public Funds Research Articles

IMPACT OF MISMANAGEMENT AND EMBEZZLEMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS ON GOVERNMENT PARASTATALS

This study examines the impact of mismanagement and embezzlement of public funds in government parastatals using Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Abuja as a case study. The study employs the survey descriptive research design. A total of 85 respondents were selected as the sample size comprising staff of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Abuja. Seventy-one (71) responses were validated from the survey. The findings reveal that the nature of mismanagement and embezzlement of the funds in the public sector is prevalent at (β = 0.912, R2 = 0.948, P = .000) and show that there are factors that enhance mismanagement and embezzlement of the fund in the government parastatals at (β = 0.892, R2 = 0.937, P = .000). It is found that mismanagement and embezzlement have a significant effect on the public fund in government parastatals (β = 0.887, R2 = 0.936, P = .000). It is also found that the extent to which financial irregularities and corrupt practices affect public service delivery (β = 0.896, R2 = 0.952, P = .000). Therefore, the study recommends the establishment of a strong penal code system to enforce laws and rules as sternly as the need for adequate punishment for offenders on corruption and related matters on fund embezzlement is paramount and germane.

A Review of Effectiveness of Anti-Corruption Strategies and Institutions in Kenya

It is often stated that the fight against corruption in Kenya does not need strong men; rather, the onslaught against pilferage and plundering of public resources requires strong institutions. Unfortunately, present efforts to combat corruption in Kenya have yielded a mixed bag of results, both negative and positive. Ostensibly, extant discourses indicate that anti-corruption institutions in Kenya and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission in particular have been unable to achieve a single high-profile conviction. Towards this, the debate on the effectiveness of anti-corruption strategies and the institution in the country is interminable. It is, therefore, the view of this study that institutions in Kenya face systemic and endemic snugs that are perhaps preventing them from achieving their institutional duty of custodianship of good practice. Results from this conceptual review indicate that although Kenya has one of the most progressive legislative and institutional frameworks on anti-corruption, the Corruption Perception Index has it that Kenya still experiences high corruption, with a score of 3 out of 10, or a ranking of position 126 out of 180 countries. Although the study noted political interference, particularly from the executive, it underscores that anti-corruption institutions do not have adequate human and financial resources, which are thought to hinder their capacity to investigate and prosecute corrupt individuals. It is recommended that Kenya should strengthen legal safeguards, empower whistleblowers, implement various anti-corruption strategies, and entrench a culture of integrity. The study recommends that the anti-corruption institutions should be allocated sufficient resources, both human and financial, so that they carry out their duties independently. The study further recommends that the future of anti-corruption actions depends on incorporating civil society organizations, the media, and international partners into the campaign against the misappropriation of public funds, as these entities play peripheral, yet pivotal roles in oversight, advocating for reforms, and enhancing public awareness. Top of Form Over and above, the study notes the criticality of freeing independent institutions from the control of the executive so that they can work autonomously.

Rules and Ethical Conduct Guiding the Performance of the Public Service Sector

there are rules and regulations, code of conducts as well as modus operandi that guide people in every organization, the Nigerian public service is not exempted from it. The public service of Nigeria has been characterized with a high level corruption, gross misconduct, financial misappropriation, embezzlement of public funds, nepotism, low value, and all manner of unethical behaviours. All these persist despite the plethora of studies carried out to sanitize the system. It is against this backdrop, this paper was written, so as to look into the ethical rules and values in the public service of Nigeria. The various concepts were analyzed. An empirical study, exploring the secondary source of collection was carried out. The utilitarian principle propounded by scholars Jeremy Bethnam and John Stuart Mill, formed our thought process. This theory is premised on the principle of the greatest level of happiness in a society. The following findings were discovered; that despite the works done by various scholars on ethics and values in the public service of Nigeria, all manner of unethical behaviours remain pervasive. Also, the campaign on instilling right ethical standards and value system in the service of Nigeria, is a continuous process. In submission, the following but not limited, were recommended; an overhauling of the public service to ensure everyone (workers and applicants) would imbibe the ethics and values of the public service, those who manage government’s affairs must lead by example, and the empowerment of the office of the citizens so as to serve as watchdog to these public servants.

Financial results of a budgetary institution as the subject of a forensic economic examination

The article is devoted to the study of the financial results of budgetary institutions when they become the subject of forensic economic examination under the trial of cases of embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds and property. The author described accounting processes and sub-processes based on the decompositional division of the process of forming the financial result in budgetary organizations into two stages. The latter are the foundation of the subject of forensic economic examination of the financial result. As revealed, the first stage covers the processes of closing sub-accounts of income and expenses for exchange and non-exchange transactions. The sub-processes of accounting reflection of income and expenses are identified, which determine the final values of the balance of the corresponding accounts. The processes of the second stage of reflecting the financial results of a budgetary institution in the forms of financial statements are determined. It is proposed to highlight the points of expert study of the financial result, corresponding to the algorithms for its development in accounting. As concluded, it is expedient to use such a sequence of expert research of the financial result of a budgetary institution that meets the algorithms for its accounting formation and reflection in financial statements. It is proved that the construction of an expert study in a way that does not reproduce the sequence of formation of the financial result on the accounts can lead to incorrect conclusions, distortion of the assessment of the income-expense ratio in the forms of financial statements. The usefulness and practical application of such a subject of forensic economic expertise lies in the possibility of its adaptation to changes in the norms of the current legislation. Adaptation is proposed to be carried out by clarifying the processes and sub-processes of accounting for the formation of financial results via the identification of points of expert study, and in the case of expanding the tasks of examination with other indicators, for example, the financial condition of a budgetary institution, their addition and expansion.

Corruption - Global Threat to Human Security

Abstract Corruption is a pervasive, highly topical, interdisciplinary social phenomenon that manifests itself globally, with regional specificities. It is a broad and complex concern whose manifestations and dynamics such as bribery, misappropriation of public funds through lack of transparency and integrity, nepotism, illegal and unfair access to positions of interest have devastating effects on economic and political instability and prevent or slow down economic growth or block competitive environments. The hypothesis is woven around the phenomenon of corruption seen not only as a question of legality but also of ethics, both institutional and personal. The present article proposes a perspective that goes beyond the purely theoretical sphere, problematising issues of current interest. The theoretical-empirical complementarity offers a complex perspective through the qualitative-quantitative alternations and the examples chosen.

Association between municipal credit management, responsiveness and service delivery

Background: Municipalities have come under fire for providing inferior services, which has sparked protests across the nation. Fraud, corruption, misappropriation of public funds and general incompetence on the part of municipal managers and their staff have been the problems that have crippled most municipalities.Aim: To investigate the association between the municipal credit management policy, responsiveness and service delivery, within a Sedibeng district municipality.Methods: This study applied quantitative analysis. The primary data were collected from residents through a self-administered questionnaire. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) (Version 28) was applied to perform the descriptive analysis and correlational analysis.Results: Key findings of this study revealed a significant positive correlation between credit management and service provision. The relationship between the credit management policy, responsiveness to credit management and service delivery is substantial. Therefore, the quality of service delivery increases with improved credit management.Conclusion: The study showed that there is a significant connection between credit management, credit management responsiveness and service delivery.Contribution: Based on the findings, it was advised that the municipality should implement rebates and discounts for paying customers, constantly review crucial credit policies and ensure the provision of high-quality services. The study concluded that there is an association between credit management, responsiveness and service delivery.

Public Investment and Economic Development in Nigeria

This paper investigated the impact of public sector investment on economic development in Nigeria over the time period 1981-2021. In order to examined how public investment on economic services, social and community services and administrative services had affected economic development measured in terms of: standard of living, literacy rate and job creation, data were collected from CBN Statistical Bulletin and World Development Indicators for the period and analysed using the ARDL. This was done after carrying out descriptive analyses and testing for unit roots properties of the variables under investigation. The result shows that public investment in economic and administrative services improved living standard while public investment in social and community services retarded living standard in Nigeria both in the short and long run. Public investments in economic and administrative services were also friendly with literacy level in the long run while public investment in economic and social services spurred employment in the long run. Public investment in administrative services was found to be friendly with literacy rate in the short run. A long-run relationship existed amongst variables under investigation in Nigeria over the period of this study. The mix effects of public investment on economic development in Nigeria could be attributed to misapplication and misappropriation of public funds. From the findings of this study, the study concluded that: public investment in economic and administrative spurred economic development than public investment in social and community services over the period of this study. Based on these findings and conclusion, the study recommended: an improvement in investment/public spending on economic and administrative services in order to create more jobs, improve income level (standard of living) and improve human capital development in Nigeria.

Трансформация государственных цифровых платформ обеспечения экономической безопасности

The subject of the study is social relations formed under the influence of the functioning of state digital platforms that serve as tools for ensuring the economic security of the country. The purpose of the work is to develop theoretical ideas about the activities of state digital platforms as means of implementing the state management mechanism. Thanks to the analysis of theoretical approaches to the definition of the concept of "digital platform" from a legal point of view, it is established that the state information systems used earlier underwent significant changes in the process of digitalization that affected the functionality of their work. It is revealed that through their use, the efficiency of the entire state mechanism is optimized and increased, the transformation of which at this stage of society's development does not end due to the fact that its individual digital services are combined into state ecosystems, implementing the theoretical model "state-as-digital platform", which provides for the transition to proactive and comprehensive provision of public services in digitally without citizens visiting public authorities. The examples of digital platforms given in the article illustrate the fulfillment of the tasks of the Economic Security Strategy in the Russian Federation, including such as improving the activities of control and supervisory authorities, combating misuse and embezzlement of public funds, corruption, shadow and criminal economy, etc. At the same time, it has been established that the legal support for the functioning of state digital platforms is currently fragmented, which reduces the effect of their use. It is concluded that the integration of digital platforms into ecosystems will bring all management of state economic processes to an increased qualitative level.

A clean audit and service delivery comparative study of two municipalities in Mpumalanga province in South Africa

In recent years, most South African (SA) municipalities still need to produce clean audits. In 2018 and 2019, most municipalities in SA needed better-quality financial statements and performance reports. Misrepresentation of financial statements in audit reports is linked to inadequate governance, misappropriation of public funds and poor public service delivery. It is upon this background that this study aimed to: (i) assess perceptions of municipality middle management employees on factors affecting auditing, (ii) evaluate the differences in perceptions among municipality middle management employees on factors affecting auditing, (iii) measure the effect of factors affecting auditing on overall clean audit and (iv) establish the effect of clean audit on service delivery at two municipalities in Mpumalanga province. Using a structured questionnaire, a quantitative descriptive approach methodology was employed to collect data from a minimum sample of 294 employees in the middle management category working within the accounting and finance department at two municipalities in Mpumalanga province, SA. SPSS v28 was used to conduct descriptive and multivariate analyses, including mean, analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation, and regression analysis. Results indicated that employees from the clean audit municipality had positive perceptions of factors affecting clean audit, while employees from the municipality with an unclean audit had negative perceptions. It was also concluded that factors affecting auditing had a statistically significant positive effect on clean audits. The findings in this study led to significant implications for theory and practice.

Factors impeding the implementation of oversight mechanisms in South African municipalities

Background: Many developing countries are experiencing many financial management and control challenges such as corruption, fraud and misappropriation of public funds. In South Africa, municipalities are among the most affected public institutions.Aim: This article investigated factors impeding the successful implementation of oversight mechanisms meant to promote accountability, with specific reference to South African municipalities.Methods: A qualitative research methodology approach was used, and an extensive review of literature and key policy documents and reports was conducted.Results: The findings revealed the following factors as impeding the implementation of oversight mechanisms in South African municipalities: ineffective internal control tracking, Auditor General’s limitations to regularly make progress checks on recommendations made, nepotism in municipal appointments, futile audit committees and management’s inability to enforce consequences.Conclusion: In the process, this article recommended that municipalities should adopt a radical metamorphosis through greater accountability measures, strengthened monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and improved leadership and accountability.Contribution: This article proposed options for improving the effectiveness of oversight mechanisms at local spheres of government in developing nations such as South Africa. Furthermore, in general, this article contributed to literature on local government oversight mechanisms and local government performance in South Africa.

The Role of Legislators and Budget Process in Nigeria

This study examined the role of the legislators and budget process in Nigeria. For the objective of the study to be achieved, the study embraces the library research which involves a review of extant literature and this forms the basis for drawing up the conclusion. Flowing from the review, the study shows that argument has been raised by several analysts that legislative oversight committees have found not to be very effective in stimulating Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for budget outcomes attainment. The argument is that oversight activities are used by some legislative committees to intimidate rather than encouraging (MDAs) to perform at the optimum levels especially in the areas of budget implementation. The study therefore recommends that the legislators in the Nigeria budget process should ensure that the MDAs make proper use of the funds allocated to them efficiently and effectively with a view to preventing careless spending, diversion as well as the misappropriation of public funds. The oversight activities of the legislative committees should be used to encourage MDAs to perform at the optimum levels especially in the areas of budget implementation and not to intimidate.

Коррупция и экономическая безопасность: правовые подходы к пониманию и особенности правоприменительной практики

Corruption is a serious obstacle to the formation of a stable and sustainable development of the state. This is due to the fact that it affects the economy, creating serious threats to the security of society, undermining democratic and ethical values, harming the rule of law. One of the main challenges and threats to economic security is the high level of criminalization and corruption in the economic sphere. An urgent task for the implementation of the direction concerning the development of the system of public administration, forecasting and strategic planning in the field of economics is the fight against misuse and embezzlement of public funds, corruption, shadow and criminal economy. 
 The economic security of society is directly related to the issues of combating corruption. Anti-corruption legislation is actively developing in the analyzed direction. This article deals with the norms of rights and law enforcement practice aimed at combating corruption through economic instruments.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ОПОДАТКУВАННЯ В УМОВАХ ДІЇ ВОЄННОГО СТАНУ

To liberalise taxation and support business during martial law, the government introduced a 2% rate on turnover instead of VAT and income tax. The calculations confirm the planned reductions in budget revenues as a result of changes in the tax system; these reductions are not likely to be temporary. The changes introduced by the government are not a tax reform, but a need to support taxpayers during the russian federation's aggression. In such a difficult economic environment for domestic enterprises, it is relevant to study advantages and disadvantages of a new tax policy, which may (or may not) be pursued even after the repeal of martial law. The analysis of the economic nature of universal excise taxes or, as they are also called, consumption taxes (value-added tax, turnover tax, sales tax), proved that the most transparent administration and accrual are characteristic of the retail sales tax. It was studied that when levying a retail sales tax, it was difficult to identify the end-user. The disadvantage is that the state budget receives money once at the stage of the commodity last sale. A value-added tax would optimally balance budget revenues. However, the VAT mechanism is considered by most experts to be extremely corrupt due to the end-to-end control by government agencies over the actual payment of VAT, resulting in the embezzlement of public funds. Among the radical options for VAT reform, the proposal to replace VAT with a turnover tax is often considered. We fully support the generalization that the tax pyramiding of the accrual of turnover tax is a prerequisite for abandoning it all the same in favour of value added tax. Moreover, it is impossible to integrate the Ukrainian tax system into the European one without VAT. At the same time, EU tax legislation provides for simplified VAT procedures as flat-rate schemes, which is implemented in domestic practice in the form of a flat tax mechanism. Based on this study, it can be argued that the current taxation model in Ukraine is universal, namely, a combination of VAT and turnover tax application for business entities. The main objective shall be further improvement of these payments and their administration.

The significance of Basiliea in political leadership in Nigeria

The Greek term Basiliea means the Kingdom of God. It is the reign of God and not a geographical location or territory. Basiliea is significant in the Bible considering the fact that God’s sovereign reign and dominion brought justice and peace. Therefore, the paper examined the significance of Basiliea in political leadership in the country with the view of encouraging political leaders to subject themselves to the reign and sovereignty of God in order to appropriate Christian leadership principles for good leadership to prevail. It engaged in a comparative analysis of Basiliea aimed at bringing the import of the Basiliea to the fore of political leadership in the country. The work adopted historical and phenomenological approaches. It made use of books like journals, bible commentaries and internet materials. The method for data analysis was descriptive and analytical. From the research, it was discovered that political leaders have neglected the values and principles of Basiliea which have occasioned bribery and corruption, embezzlement of public funds, electoral malpractice and selfish interests to mention just a few. The writer proffered solutions by making recommendations that arrested the situation.

Misappropriated Development: Exploring Accountability as the Rate-determining Step to the Realisation of the Right to Development in Select African Countries

The right to development seeks to provide the enabling environment for the participation, contribution and well-being of persons in their freedom to enjoy their socio-economic development. The realisation of the right to development, therefore, imposes a duty on the state to ensure that the basic needs of the people are met without any impairment. The challenge in promoting the quality of life of the people as envisaged in the right to development often falls on a strong public service where accountability is a core component. Misappropriation of allocated funds, especially in the public sector, results in misgovernance of the institutions of state. Africa also struggles with the misappropriation of public funds, which hinders the provision of basic goods and quality services for the well-being of the population. Accountability, therefore, is the rate-determining step to the social, economic, political and cultural development of the people. In this article, the concept of the rate-determining step seeks to eliminate the challenges to the process of development to engender social transformation, with specific reference to Nigeria and South Africa. Rampant corruption and misgovernance in many provinces, especially the Free State, undermine South Africa’s strength in fulfilling its development plans. Nigeria is an oil-rich country, yet the region where the oil is produced remains impoverished. This article focuses on accountability as the essential element in curbing misgovernance and misappropriation and examines the development agenda of these regions and the rate-determining step to the realisation of these development objectives, with a view to advancing a development model that puts the individual at the core of its development programmes and processes.

The Lingering Challenges of Underdevelopment in Africa’s and Nigeria: The Root Causes, Impacts and Panacea

The underdevelopment of Africa’s and Nigeria is neither natural nor solely caused by internal contradictions, such as corruption, bad leadership, embezzlement of public funds as argued by some political science scholars even though the aforementioned internal factors plays a very devastating roles on the issue of underdevelopment in Africa. However, Andre G. Frank argued that the Europe and Africa’s were developing at a different pace, until the Europe came and distorted the development of Africa, the idea which Frank called development of underdevelopment in Africa. Nevertheless, it is germane to expose the fact that the underdevelopment of Africa’s and Nigeria was caused or could be traced to internal and external factors such as bad leadership, corruption and highhandedness etc. as the internal factors on one hand, and slavery, colonialism and imperialism, deceptive politics of exploitation of Africa’s surplus values as the external factors on the other hand. However, this paper examined the external causes of underdevelopment in Africa’s and Nigeria, and examined the pattern or process through which the Europe underdeveloped Africa’s and Nigeria. This paper adopted the relative deprivation theory as a model to explaining how Africa’s and Nigeria were deprived of her development, and how her resources were exploited by the Europe, hence, underdevelopment of Africa’s and Nigeria. This paper also adopted the secondary methods of data gathering, as valuable data were retrieved from articles, textbooks, newspapers and internets materials, as those data collected are used to validate the arguments of this study. This paper finally proffers sustainable solutions on how to fall out of the devastating challenges of underdevelopment ravaging Africa’s and Nigeria.

Фінансові результати бюджетної установи як предмет судової економічної експертизи

The article is devoted to the study of the financial results of budgetary institutions when they become the subject of forensic economic examination under the trial of cases of embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds and property. The author described accounting processes and sub-processes based on the decompositional division of the process of forming the financial result in budgetary organizations into two stages. The latter are the foundation of the subject of forensic economic examination of the financial result. As revealed, the first stage covers the processes of closing sub-accounts of income and expenses for exchange and non-exchange transactions. The sub-processes of accounting reflection of income and expenses are identified, which determine the final values of the balance of the corresponding accounts. The processes of the second stage of reflecting the financial results of a budgetary institution in the forms of financial statements are determined. It is proposed to highlight the points of expert study of the financial result, corresponding to the algorithms for its development in accounting. As concluded, it is expedient to use s uch a sequence of expert research of the financial result of a budgetary institution that meets the algorithms for its accounting formation and reflection in financial statements. It is proved that the construction of an expert study in a way that does not reproduce the sequence of formation of the financial result on the accounts can lead to incorrect conclusions, distortion of the assessment of the income-expense ratio in the forms of financial statements. The usefulness and practical application of such a subject of forensic economic expertise lies in the possibility of its adaptation to changes in the norms of the current legislation. Adaptation is proposed to be carried out by clarifying the processes and sub-processes of accounting for the formation of financial results via the identification of points of expert study, and in the case of expanding the tasks of examination with other indicators, for example, the financial condition of a budgetary institution, their addition and expansion.

Human resource management as a tool to control corruption: Evidence from Mexican municipal governments

AbstractPrincipal‐agent models of corruption control that emphasize rules, incentives, and sanctions as prime antecedents of corruption often stop short when evaluating how these general principles translate into concrete Human Resource Management (HRM) policies. Following a call to develop research about how day‐to‐day public management operations change incentives to be corrupt, we use data of 5.22 million USD audited to 545 local Mexican governments over 3 years to test the correlation between the misappropriation of public funds and specific HRM functions. Our results suggest that HRM is a critical, underseen factor in understanding the risk of corruption. In line with previous findings, we show that having merit‐based recruitment can prevent corruption. However, we also find that having performance and departmental evaluations and a less unequal structure of remunerations may also help local governments effectively avoid the misappropriation of public money.

Political mobilization and its impact on voter turnout: A survey experiment in Iraq

This article clarifies how political mobilization affects voter turnout in a post-conflict society by analyzing the Iraqi case using survey data. Voter turnout was high in post-war Iraq. However, the voter turnout in the fourth election, held in May 2018, declined by 20 percentage points from the previous one in 2014, mainly because of widespread political distrust due to corruption among political elites and their embezzlement of public funds, neglect of the people, and the breakdown of social services after the intensive operation against the so-called Islamic State (IS). Political mobilization during electoral campaigns usually encourages voters to go to polling stations. Notwithstanding, amid widespread political distrust in a post-conflict society, how does political mobilization affect voters’ behavior in elections? To answer this research question, we conducted a survey experiment during the 2018 electoral campaign to scrutinize the effects of political mobilization on voters in Iraq. Through quantitative analysis of the survey data, we demonstrated that voters are more likely to refrain from visiting polling stations if they are mobilized by political parties during a campaign. Thus, political mobilization discourages voters from participating in elections when there is extensive political distrust.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM PROGRAM ON EFFECTIVE FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY IN TANZANIA: THE CASE OF UBUNGO MUNICIPAL COUNCILS (UBMC)

Financial transparency has been identified as a key feature of efficient public financial management in Local Government Authorities (LGAs) in Tanzania. However, the factors which undermine fiscal transparency in LGAs remain an empirical challenge, and extant literature in developing countries is still sparse. The purpose of this study was to explore why, after a decade of fiscal transparency reform programs, many developing countries in particular Tanzania is still lagging behind in financial transparency in LGAs particularly UBMC. To that end, this study adds knowledge on the factors which undermine fiscal transparency in LGAs and the ways forward in Tanzania. This study used a case study research design, purposive sampling was used to select 86 respondents and the methods of data collection were interview, and documentary review while data were analyzed through content analysis. The findings indicate that the level of education and the embezzlement of public funds and, weak oversight of the citizens negatively affect fiscal transparency in LGAs. It is therefore concluded that UBMC financial transparency process should be part and parcel of UBMC so that citizens may trust their government after being furnished with the financial information related to financial utilization and collection in LGAs in Tanzania. This study recommends that UBMC should make sure that relevant financial information about the finances and other local government activities should be made public timely on request including to the public, media, civil society organization, and citizens.