The Role Of Forensic Accounting As A Mechanism For Fraud Detection In Nigeria Public Service

The mismanagement of notable government businesses across the nation has led to the abandonment of viable public projects and the attendant indiscriminate lay-off of staff in the public sector have generated the ever-increasing attention in academic, private and public sectors. As a result of the increase in the level of decadence in the government sector, a gamut of dissenting voices have been raised necessitating the need to examine the relationship that exist between forensic accounting and financial crimes in the Nigerian public sector by specifically assessing the measures put in place to ensure a reduction in financial crimes in the Nigerian public sector and evaluating the effect of litigation support service on the reduction of financial crime in the Nigerian public sector. The study adopted survey research design and linear regression technique to analyze the empirical data collected through questionnaire and oral interview and the hypothesis formulated was also tested. The results of the hypothesis tested at 5% level of significance revealed that litigation support service had significant but negative effect (reduction) on financial crimes in the Nigerian public sector. It was recommended that forensic accounting experts be employed to carry out more litigation support services to serve as expert witness that will assist the court to reach a conclusion on issues which the court may not ordinarily have the knowledge to decide, while more forensic accountants be engaged to reduce rate of fraudulent cases in the Nigerian public sector.