The problem of the research study is three-fold:
i. Are the internal Audit departments of local government councils given the desired independence to carry out their function.
ii. Do the local government councils apply funds according to laid down rules.
iii. Do the councils maintain proper books of accounts. The study, descriptive in nature made use of the questionnaire and oral
interview tools of data collection. The data so collected fall into the secondary
and primary group of data.
Data collected was mainly in respect of nine (9) local governments. The data was analyzed via the use of tables.
The major findings of the research are:-
i. local government accounting: an investigations shows that the books prescribed by the financial memoranda for use by all local -governments in
Nigeria are not properly adhered to. This is due to unqualified staff on ground - who are either school certificate holde1'9 who have reason through the ranks. The conventional enterprise accounting recognizes the concept of asset maintenance. This means that there is gradual setting aside of funds in form of depreciation for the replacement of assets at a future date. For the local
government under study replacement is a matter of management decision, when such acquisition is envisaged, a provision is made in the estimate and if approved and fund is provided, the asset will be replaced.
ii Local government revenue- investigation shows that statutory allocation gets to local government as at when due. Apart from statutory allocation
internally generated revenue is on the increase except that revenue generation problem has to do with the machinery for collection.
Iii Local government auditing: There was absence of good internal control system in the organization and this makes it impossible for management
to achieve good accountability since there will not be any reliable data to rely From the local government under study, aggregate internal control measures are not in place. This goes to say that internal control measures are inadequate and
this account for large scale fraud that is found in local government councils
