Impact of Forensic Accounting Investigation on Public Sector Financial Crimes in Nigeria

Abstract

Forensic Accounting is an investigative style of accounting used to determine whether an individual or an organization has engaged in any illegal financial activities. Forensic Accounting is a rapidly growing field of discipline which describes the engagement that results from actual or anticipated dispute or litigations. The purpose of this study therefore, is to examine the Impact of Forensic Accounting Investigation on Public Sector Financial Crimes in Nigeria. The study focused on investigation activities of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). The sources of data for the study were both primary and secondary and the study used Five (5) years Investigation Reports of the ICPC (from 2015-2019) to ascertain the Impact of Forensic Accounting Investigation in relation to traditional investigation on Public Sector Financial Crimes in Nigeria. The statistical tool used to test hypotheses was X2-square. Out of the cases investigated and prosecuted for the years under review, the Commission secured more convictions on Public Sector Financial Crimes investigated by forensic accountants than hitherto the traditional investigators. On a likert scale of strongly-agreed, agreed, strongly-disagreed and disagreed, 61.7% and 16.7% of the respondents strongly-agreed and agreed respectively that the Forensic Accountants are more result oriented on investigation and prosecution of public financial crimes than the Traditional Investigators. This aligned with actual results of investigated and prosecuted cases of the Commission for the period, where 15% and 6.7% strongly disagreed and disagreed respectively on the impact of forensic accounting investigation on public sector financial crimes. Among the findings was that the Application of Forensic Accounting skills do have a significant impact of forensic accounting investigation on public sector financial crimes in Nigeria and that there is significant difference between Forensic Accountants as Investigators and Traditional Investigators of financial crimes. This therefore means that the use of Forensic Accounting in investigation of financial crimes can be more result oriented than other forms of investigations of financial crimes on public sector in Nigeria. The study therefore recommends that Forensic Accountants be replaced with the Traditional Investigators of financial crimes in Nigeria Public sector; proper training and retraining on forensic accounting should be provided to staff of public sector and proper adherence to forensic accounting standards.