CHAPTER ONE
1.0 RESEARCH BACKGROUND
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The term “fund accounting” is as old as the world itself. The origin of fund accounting could be traced to the parable of talents in the holy Bible (Mathew 25: 14-30) about a man who delivered his goods to three of his servants and traveled to a far country two of them traded with their and made profits while the third went and buried his in the ground. When the time for accounting for the fund came they all rendered their accounts for the activities to their master accounting has been defined as a discipline concerned with identifying analysis forecasting of income and expenditure and recording of financial information” generally , it records in monetary terms the flow of economic value between or within entities.
The term “fund accounting’s often associated with either government accounting or non-profit making entities such as clubs societies and churches “ fund” in accounting may connote different meanings. In private sector it may be used to describe net current asset (current assets less current liabilities) as when used in the statement of sources and application of funds” it may also be used to describe an asset set aside for particular purpose it may also denote cash or securities.
A very fundamental point to note is that a fund is an accounting entity. A successful organization whether private public profit or non profit making needs to keep proper account of cash inflows and outflows. Therefore the importance of fund accounting in public sector including local government cannot be over-stressed local government by their nature an concerned with the provision of prescribed services at local level and carrying out certain local functions thus the accounts kept by the local governments is designed to,.
i. Provide an analysis of the revenue and taxes raised by the local government and;
ii. Provide an analysis of the extent to which such revenue has been used in providing each separate service and sub-service for which the local government is responsible. Therefore the accounting procedures must be directed towards ensuring that maximum possible benefit is obtained from the limited resources it owns.
The essence of the foregoing is that a local government should be able to demonstrate sound stewardship in the conducts of the financial affairs of the community which is serves. Factually the accounting arrangement of the local government are some times described as stewardship accounting this term dues not however imply and different objectives and emphasis form those of a business organization. Nevertheless local governments accounting is as deeply rooted in the double entry system as business accounting. Books of prime entry and ledgers are maintained trial balances are regularly prepared and these lead on the preparation of summary accounts of revenue and expenditure for the appropriate period and a statement of affairs at the end of that period.
In conclusion since the local government is duty bound to report all its financial activities to higher echelons government and the general public the account must be comprehensive enough to enable people to know how public funds entrusted in the hands of the government have been utilized.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS
Local government system has many problems that hinder their accounting system.
Some local government system does not have qualified staffs that take proper account of their revenue and expenditure therefore they do no keep proper book of account.
More so, they do not public their financial statement to the public or to the state and federal government since improve book of account are being kept by them. some qualified staffs may conceal some material facts when preparing the financial statement therefore the account will not show the true and fair view of their financial statement since some material fact were not disclosed.
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The financial memoranda which governs the local government accounting spells out the rules and regulations which the financial activities of the local government must conform with in order to produce a true and fair view of the local government statement of affairs. In spite of these rules and regulation there are some constraints or weakness that hinder its effectiveness.
The purpose of the study is therefore to pin-point those problems and proffer means of eradicating them completely or at least reducing them to the nearest minimum.
1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The obejcttives of the study are:
1. To determine the extent to which the selected local government has installed a fund accounting system.
2. To ascertain the adequacy and effectiveness of the fund accounting system of the local governments.
3. To evaluate the fund accounting method adopted by the selected local government.
4. To evaluate the accounting procedure of the selected local government
5. To determine the factors that promote or hinder the accounting system of the selected local government.
6. To offer suggestions on how to improve the accounting of the said local government.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study is important in many respects especially now that there is an increase in the number of local government created by the federal government. Since the local government owes the duty to report its financial activities to the general public and to the federal and state governments proper books of account must be kept in order to a achieve this objective at any particular time.
The study attempts to give an insight in to the fund accounting system of the local government and the management of such funds.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
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