Fiscal federalism and accountability in Nigeria: an ARDL approach
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JMLC-05-2020-0046 |
| Published date | 30 June 2020 |
| Date | 30 June 2020 |
| Pages | 359-371 |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & Finance,Financial risk/company failure,Financial compliance/regulation,Financial crime |
| Author | Olabanji Olukayode Ewetan,Romanus Osabohien,Oluwatoyin Augustina Matthew,Abiola Ayopo Babajide,Ese Urhie |
Fiscal federalism and
accountability in Nigeria: an
ARDL approach
Olabanji Olukayode Ewetan,Romanus Osabohien and
Oluwatoyin Augustina Matthew
Department of Economics and Development Studies, Covenant University,
Ota, Nigeria
Abiola Ayopo Babajide
Department of Banking and Finance, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria, and
Ese Urhie
Department of Economics and Development Studies, Covenant University,
Ota, Nigeria
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between fiscal federalism and
accountability in Nigeria.Corruption is a global plague and is endemic in nature. Several policies have been
adopted by the Nigerian Governmentto institutionalizeaccountability and combat the scourge of corruption
that have hinderedsocio-economic progress but to no avail.
Design/methodology/approach –Thus, this study examined fiscal federalism and accountability
issues in Nigeria using secondarydata and used the auto-regressive distributed lag econometric techniqueto
analyse the data.
Findings –The results from this studyreveal that fiscal federalism fails to mitigate corruption in the long
run in Nigeria becauseof poor bureaucratic quality (BQ) and ineffective law and order(LOR).
Social implications –Fiscal decentralization must be accompanied by legislations that will strengthen
BQ of fiscal institutionsat subnational levels and promoteeffective LOR.
Originality/value –This study recommends that for fiscal federalism to mitigatecorruption in the long
run, government must adoptappropriate policies to improve BQ and further strengthen LOR in Nigeria. The
finding also suggests that to promote publicsector accountability in Nigeria, government should ensure the
simultaneous decentralizationof expenditure and revenue to lower tiers of government. This study provides
detailed empirical evidence that fiscal decentralization without accountability will accentuate public sector
corruption, and in the long run, weaken local economic development initiative to boost growth and
development.
Keywords Accountability, Fiscal federalism, Fiscal decentralization,
Autoregressive distributed lag
Paper type Research paper
JEL classification –H77, R51
Ethics approval and consent to participate: Not applicable.
Funding: None.
Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Fiscal
federalism
359
Journalof Money Laundering
Control
Vol.24 No. 2, 2021
pp. 359-371
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1368-5201
DOI 10.1108/JMLC-05-2020-0046
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