Reducing Financial Leakages Through Effective Transparency and Accountability Mechanism: A Necessary Tool to Accelerate Sustainable Economic Development

Nigeria as a nation is bedevilled with underdevelopment making it being referred to as either developing or under-developed nation despite huge revenue made from oil, tax and other revenue sources. The underdevelopment is blamed largely on lack of adequate financial resources to execute projects included in annual budget. However, financial experts and economists have maintained that Nigeria is blessed with enough resources to develop the nation only that the resources are being diverted to unauthorized routes or misappropriated by dubious public servants in collaboration with corrupt politicians due to financial accountability and transparency loopholes in the public financial management system of the nation. This view is as a result of unprecedented developmental projects embarked upon by the current administration despite financial leakages discovered in the system. The question remains that could entrenchment of effective accountability and transparency continue for a long while in public service to ensure sustainable economic development? The study is therefore embarked upon to identify how reducing financial leakages through effective transparency and accountability mechanism in Nigeria is possible to accelerate sustainable economic development. This is followed by review of relevant literature especially on public financial management theories relating to accountabilitytransparency and economic development. The data were then collected using secondary source and presented in frequency table showing various variables and their corresponding figures. The data were extracted from the Bulletins of Federal Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria and national Bureau of Statistics (NBS).The data were then subjected to analytical processing using regression analysis through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study findings show that various strategies put in place by the current administration blocking financial leakages in the country have been able to ensure and accelerate economic development in the country while extending same to states and local governments including agencies which are yet to key-in to the policies would ensure sustainable economic development and restore the lost glory of the Country. Adekunle, Dada Surajudeen | Odutola, Oluyemi Akanbi | Akomolafe, Johnson Adewale | Adegbite, G. Adewale"Reducing Financial Leakages Through Effective Transparency and Accountability Mechanism: A Necessary Tool to Accelerate Sustainable Economic Development" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-2 | Issue-5 , August 2018, URL: http://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd16990.pdf http://www.ijtsrd.com/management/marketing-management/16990/reducing-financial-leakages-through-effective-transparency-and-accountability-mechanism-a-necessary-tool-to-accelerate-sustainable-economic-development/adekunle-dada-surajudeen