عنوان

The nature and practice of financial management and audit in the Sudanese public sector.

Number

TLets394320

Title Proper

The nature and practice of financial management and audit in the Sudanese public sector.

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

El-Nafabi, Hussein Mohamed.

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

University of Wales.Aberystwyth

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

1998

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

University of Wales.Aberystwyth

Text preceding or following the note

1998

Text of Note

The Sudan is currently undertaking a series of National Economic Salvation Programmesdesigned to arrest the decline in the Sudanese economy and to provide the basis of futureeconomic growth and stability. Given the overwhelming importance of the public sector to theSudanese economy, it is clear that financial management and audit in the public sector has animportant role to play if these programmes are to be successful. Without appropriate financialmanagement systems and controls underlying their operation, it is unlikely that the newpolicies and institutional reforms envisaged within these programmes will be successful inachieving their proposed goals and objectives. The raison d'etre of this study is then theinvestigation of the role of financial management and audit in the public sector in the Sudanwith a particular focus on the potential for change offered by the adoption of practices ofaccountability and control found in more developed countries. The underlying thesis is thatessentially it is the culture, political history, administrative, commercial and politicalenvironment of the Sudan which are the factors primarily responsible for the lack ofeffectiveness of the financial management and control systems in the Sudan.The early part of this study is largely contextual in nature. The role played by financialmanagement and audit in developed countries today is examined and various mechanisms ofaccountability discussed. In that Sudan is a developing country and one which has beensubject to rapid political change and upheaval since independence was achieved more than 40years ago, the economic and political landscape of the Sudan is explored in some detail. It isargued that it is only against this turbulent economic and political background that the presentrole of public sector financial management and audit in the Sudan can be explained and thepotential for change identified.Later chapters comprise a detailed investigation and examination of the present systems ofbudgeting and financial accountability within the Sudanese public sector and of the presentrole and modus operandi of internal audit and of external audit conducted through the AuditorGeneral's Chamber. These sections are further informed by both a questionnaire study andanalysis of a series of interviews with senior officials in the Sudanese public sectororganisations.A recurring theme throughout these chapters is the major disparity between the theoreticalsystems of budgeting, accountability and audit as laid down by regulations and statute and theactuality of practice. In consequence, the systems of controlling and safeguarding public fundsin the Sudan are extensively flawed. Perhaps an inevitable result of the weakness andinadequacy of these control systems has been the continuation and growth of fraud, corruption,misuse of government property, and financial irregularity within the Sudanese public sector. Afurther chapter specifically focuses on the nature and extent of fraud and corruption within theSudanese public sector. This highlights the manner whereby it has become institutionalisedwithin the economic and social framework and is thereby likely to prove extremely difficult toeradicate. It also suggests that caution should be exercised in advocating rapid transition tomechanisms and forms of accountability and control found in more developed countries.Problems inherent in such a transition are exemplified by the comparative lack of success indeveloping an effective public sector internal audit function on the basis of government fiat.The study concludes by highlighting its main findings and identifying a number of areas inwhich change and reform might be considered if public sector financial management and auditis indeed to facilitate and contribute to the regeneration of the Sudanese economy.

El-Nafabi, Hussein Mohamed.

University of Wales.Aberystwyth

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y