ABSTRACT

The main focus of this research work is to evaluate fraud detection and control in payroll department using Abia State as study. The study employed description survey design. Purposive sampling was used to select 80 respondents for the study. A well-structured questionnaire was used to extract information from the respondents. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the objectives raised in the study while one sample t-test was used to test the hypothesis. From the results, some of the fraud found in the payroll as indicated by the respondents include pay cheque diversions (3.4), kickbacks (3.1), Ghost workers (3.6), wage false claims (3.4), false expense claims (3.6). Some of the effect of internal control measures on fraud detection as agreed by the respondents include strict compliance with the existing government regulation, rules and procedures by treasury staff (mean = 3.2), well-designed and properly understood organization line of authority and responsibility at the district treasury (3.2). The result of test of hypothesis one indicates fraud has a significant effect on the activities of payroll department of Abia State; also, the result of test of hypothesis two showed that internal control measures has significant effect on fraud detection and control in an organization. Based on the findings, the researcher therefore recommend that; the internal control personnel should be more proactive in preventing fraud and that the governments should remunerate their employee according to current economic realities and digitalize the payroll system to reduce fraud to the barest minimum.