PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTANTS AND CORRUPTION IN NIGERIAN PUBLIC SERVICE

This study examines the influence of Professional Accountants on Corruption in the Nigerian Public Service. The exploratory study is based on the examination of the perception of a sample of 30 professional accountants across the federal, state and local government establishments in Edo-State Nigeria, on their perceived relationship between their professional ethical dispositions and their public service-workplace, and what they consider to be the nature of their impact on prevailing corruption in their workplace. The study employed the field survey research design method that entails the administration of well-structured questionnaire to obtain relevant data from professional accountants in government employment. The study reveals that despite the professional status of Public Service Accountants, their ethical and professional conducts are nevertheless negatively influenced by the nature of their work-place and shows no evidence of their influence against the prevalent corruption in their government workplace. Recommendations to address the issues uncovered by these 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 Accountants; the establishment of public whistleblowing structures and Ethics Departments in public-service-workplaces and the making of pro-active policies by professional accounting bodies, that should provide temporary financial and legal assistance to any of their members that may be wrongly victimised on ethical grounds. The major contribution of this study is that it provides a basis for assessing for the first time, the role of Nigerian public sector professional accountants in the curtailment of corruption in their work-place.