CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Nigeria was colonised by Britain but had her independent in 1960. Nigeria is a federation of thirty-six States and seven hundred and seventy-four Local Government Areas, It has a population of over one hundred and forty million people and the dominant source of income is oil (Oyelakin, 2003). Nigeria is a country endowed with abundant natural economic resources. But despite the abundance of national wealth, Nigeria has remained underdeveloped and is ranked among the poorest nations of the world (King, 2003; Soludo, 2007). Since there is an abundance of resources, Nigeria’s poverty level and underdevelopment can only be attributed to mismanagement and corruption, facilitated by weak, inappropriate and malfunctioning public sector. During the colonial era, the British installed a financial control measure that is still being practised today in the Nigerian public sector. The legal framework for the control of public finance is still based on the laws that were transferred to Nigeria by the British colonial administration at independence. Most of these laws have been scantily amended. The two most relevant legal frameworks that predate independence and which are still used today are the Finance (Control and Management) Act No. 33, 1958 and the Audit Act No. 38, 1956 (Anyafo, 2000). Other legal documents that influence financial control practice include the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; the Appropriation Acts; Financial Regulations and Finance and Treasury Circulars (Daniel, 2002).
