PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTANTS AND CORRUPTION IN NIGERIAN PUBLIC SERVICE

This study attempts to examine the influence of Professional Accountants on Corruption in Nigeria Public Service on one hand and the influence of government-workplace on professional Accountant on the other. Corruption, as epitomised by fraudulent financial practices remains a global malaise as well as the bane of Nigeria’s socio economic transformation. Corruption poses serious challenges to the ethical disposition of professional accountants in public service employments as well as the professional accounting bodies they belong. This exploratory study is based on the examination of the perception of a 30 professional accountants from convenient-sampled federal, state and local government establishments in Edo-State, Nigeria on their perceived relationship between their professional ethical dispositions and their public service-workplace, on one hand, and their perceived impact on corruption in their public service workplace on the other. The study reveals that despite the professional status of Public Service Accountants, their ethical and professional conducts are nevertheless influenced by the very nature of their work-place and shows no evidence of the professional Accountants’ impact against corruption. Recommendations to address the issues raised by the findings include: the need for a detailed review of existing Civil Service laws and Financial Regulations that impede the autonomy of the professional Public Service Accountant, the establishment of public whistle blowing structures and Ethics Departments in the public-service-work-place and the need to put in place pro-active policies by professional accounting bodies that provides temporary financial and legal assistance to any of their members that may be victimised on ethical grounds.