FORENSIC ACCOUNTING RELEVANCE IN DETECTION AND PREVENTION OF PUBLIC SECTOR FRAUDS IN NIGERIA

Fraud has remained a perennial problem that adversely affect economic growth in Nigeria. Nigeria has not fared well on thefraud and corruption index published by transparency international. Of concern is the upsurge in fraud cases especially in the publicsector despite the setting up of regulatory agencies to tackle the anomaly. Globally, there is change in strategy for fraud investigationsdue to the inadequacies of traditional auditing methods towards the deployment of forensic accounting tools. Nigeria however has notbeen an exception. The efficacy of forensic accounting tools deployed in Nigeria in the fight against fraud is debatable. This studytherefore has the goal to examine the effect of forensic accounting tools in detection and prevention of public sector frauds in Nigeriain the long run for the period 1999 to 2024 using primary and secondary data. The study used Hausman test for selection of model andmultiple regression for determination of relationship. Various diagnostic tests were carried out to ensure reliability of results. Theautoregressive distributed lag was used to determine short run and long run impacts of forensic accounting tools on public sector fraud.Findings revealed no significant effect of Investigative accounting, Data Mining and Litigation support in detecting public sectorfrauds in Nigeria. Although the short run effects were significant and negative, the long run effects were insignificant. However,Litigation support has no significant effect on both public sector Frauds in Nigeria signalling the ineffectiveness of the judiciary ingiving relevant support to the agencies saddled with the responsibility to detect and prevent frauds. The long run effects of Forensicaccounting on Frauds in Nigeria were found to be generally different from the short run effects. Based on failure of forensicaccounting to produce impacts on public sector frauds the study recommends that Forensic accounting tools that focuses specificallyon public sector frauds needs to be boosted in Nigeria. The study has demonstrated that forensic accounting tools do not deliver longrun effects on fraud reduction. Since Public sector frauds affect sustainable developments in Nigeria regulatory agencies in Nigeriashould be equipped with necessary forensic accounting tools to help in detection and prevention of frauds in Nigeria. There is alsoincreased need for the public sector to strengthen internal controls and internal audit by exposing employees to necessary forensicaccounting tools and employment of forensic accounting experts. Additionally, frauds is a direct reflection of societal values.Therefore, there is urgent need for re-orientation and the necessity for implementation of criminal laws to act as a deterrent toperpetrators.