Ethics and Financial Accountability in the Nigerian Public Sector Organizations: A Forgotten Son and the Birth of Moral Slave

Abstract

This paper evaluated the “ethics and financial accountability in the Nigerian public sector organizations: a forgotten son and the birth of moral slave.” The methodology adopted for the evaluation was a ttheoretical literature review which focused on specific integrated and interlocking theories that examined the plethora of the basic theoretical and empirical constructs, and concepts of the study. We pooled the underpinning theories that have accumulated in regard to issues, concepts, and phenomena within the context of how public officers would take the oath of office and yet carried out their duties as if though no such oath existed. The choice of this phenomenological review is to define the instrumental roles of these theories in terms of what has already existed and attempting to establishing what relationships have been identified between them and the problem of the investigation. It enabled us to show the degree to which they have been investigated, and to spur more interest from scholars on how to pragmatically tackle the issue of financial accountability in Nigeria public sector. At the end, we recommended that, Personal income statements of all public officials should be published annually that will usher in an accounting statement to be called, Personal Ledger Accounts of Public Officers (PLAPO) – comprehensive volume, which will show the various entries (Debit and Credit) as they occurred and be in public domain for public scrutiny, critiquing and validation.