THE IMPACT OF EXTERNAL AUDITING ON THE PERFORMANCE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT COUNCIL IN NIGERIA

THE IMPACT OF EXTERNAL AUDITING ON THE PERFORMANCE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT COUNCIL IN NIGERIA
 
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0           BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Local government is the third tier of government in Nigeria that is nearest to people at grassroots. It is a structure which provides for the social services needed by the people and also brings development and good governance to the grass root. The major objective of establishing local government is for the development to thrive at the grassroots level.
At all levels of government, controls have to be exercise over all aspect of the government resources. All organizations whether profit oriented or not-for-profit making operates within resource constraints. As a result, various forms of control are taken and procedures established to ensure that the use of the resource is maximized in achieving the organizations goals. Therefore, local government as an organization also do incorporate into its accounting system all methods and forms of controls which enable her to operate effectively and efficiently to achieve her targeted objectives.
Apart from the problems of scarce resources, local governments are vulnerable to run a high rate of fraud, errors, misappropriation, and inefficient and effective operations. Steps are required therefore, to minimize, if not eliminate completely, these risk by establishing rules and regulations. For every local government, there are risks that the local government goals and objectives may not be achieved. All efforts aimed at preventing such risks, and/or identifying and controlling such risk, are viewed as external audit.
Therefore, an effective external audit service should reduce overhead and identify ways to improve efficiency and minimize losses which are essential elements

for proper accountability. Accountability is about adherence to management policies, safeguarding the assets and securing as far as possible the completeness and