IPPSAS Basis and Accountability in Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAS)

Abstract

Nigeria had painfully missed several foreign direct investments as foreign investors and several multi-national companies are being scared away by lack of accountability and transparency. Consequently, there has been an increase in demand for public accountability and transparency by stakeholders in the preparation of financial statements to facilitate meaningful internal control and monitoring of public resources. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of international public sector accounting standards (IPSASs) basis on the accountability in government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in Nigeria. This study adopted a field survey research design in which structured questionnaire was designed and distributed to the respondents as a means of gathering information. This study used primary source of data due to the fact that the data needed from this study will be obtained by the field survey of knowledgeable individuals through the administration of questionnaire to respondents. The population size of the study comprises of all the accountants and accounting professionals in government MDAs in Nigeria. Purposive sampling technique was used to sample 100 respondents from the government MDAs in Nigeria which are easily accessible for the researcher. Method of data analysis for this study was frequency analysis and chi-square t-test econometric models which explain the variation in the values of the independent variable on the basis of change in other dependent variables. Empirical findings revealed that IPSAS adoption and implementation exert positive relationship with accountability in Nigeria public sector and exhibit a significant effect. Therefore, this study concluded that IPSAS has a positively significant effect with accountability in Nigeria public sector. The study recommends that IPSAS accrual basis should be enforced in all government parastatals as well as agencies in order to broaden the transparency and accountability in Nigeria public sector.