EVALUATION OF VALUE FOR MONEY AUDIT, AS A TOOL FOR FRAUD CONTROL IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR [A STUDY OF POWER HOLDING COMPANY OF NIGERIA ABUJA]

The scope of governmental auditing has been widened over the year by the demand for independent verification of information to the extent that it can no longer be limited to the audit of financial operations, but value for money audit which ensures that the activities and programs are carried out at low cost and high standard. Lack of commitment in cost efficiency to the overall achievement of goals by the managers in the public sector brought the need of this research work titled “Evaluation of value for money audit as tool for fraud control in the public sector”. The aim was to ascertain whether government auditing achieves the purposes for which programs are authorizes and funds released economically and efficiently in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

A survey research design was adopted for the study with sample size of 100 respondents randomly sample and stratified from Audit and finance department of PHCN (Abuja). Three hypotheses were tested at 5% level of significance using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistics. it was found that value for money audit play a vital role in promoting the effectiveness and efficiency of activities in the public sector the researcher recommend that government should support the implementation of policies formulated to enhance value for money audit in the public sector.