Detective Internal Controls and Financial Planning in Public Sector in Nigeria: An Empirical Analysis

This study investigated the relationship between detective internal controls and public Sector financial management in terms of financial Planning with a focus on selected ministries in rivers state. Interpretive Philosophy and descriptive research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was the twenty-Six (26) ministries in Rivers State, Nigeria as at year end 2019. The unit population was the staff of the ministries from departments as Finance and Accounts, Procurements, Internal audit, Monitoring and evaluation, and office of the Commissioner for each of the ministries selected. Simple random sampling technique was used to determine the sample for the study. A sample of 26 ministries and 130 respondents were selected for the study. Copies of questionnaire were used for data gathering. Descriptive statistics and Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation Coefficient statistics was used for data analysis. This was done with the aid of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The result of the study showed that internal control dimension of detective internal controls has a very strong, positive and significant relationship with the measures of public sector financial management (financial planning). The study concludes that detective internal controls have a significant relationship with financial planning in public sector in Nigeria. The study recommended that the ministries should ensure that there are adequate controls in the system, so that effective and efficient financial management can be achieved. Government should focus more on the establishment of detective, controls in the ministries as these controls have significant effect on proper and prudent management of funds allocated to the ministries for budget execution among others