Debt Management and Financial Reporting Accuracy: Catalysts for Financial Management in State-owned Tertiary Institutions in South-South, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to examine to investigate how Debt Management and Financial Reporting Accuracy act as catalysts on Financial Management in State-owned Tertiary Institutions in South- South, Nigeria.  Correlation design was used for the study. The population of the study was 164 internal auditors in all State-owned tertiary institutions in the study area. Selective sample technique was adopted to sample 154 internal auditors in the Conventional Education Sector in the State-owned tertiary institutions. Instrument titled “Debt Management and Financial Reporting Accuracy in State-owned Tertiary Institutions Questionnaire” by the researcher and used for data collection. The instrument was subjected to face and content validity . a reliability coefficient 0f 0.87 was obtained foe the instrument using Cronbach Alpha Statistics. R and R² values of simple linear regression was used to answer the research questions while F-values of simple linear regression was used to test the hypotheses at .05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that the extent to which debt management and financial reporting accuracy act as catalysts in financial management in State-owned tertiary institutions were significance. Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that debt management and financial reporting accuracy if properly used could act as catalysts in financial management in State-owned tertiary institutions in South-South, Nigeria. It was recommended among others that State-owned tertiary institutions should adopt and enforce IPSAS-Compliant Financial Standards to enhance accuracy, transparency, and comparability of financial reports.