Description

An assessment of cost performance and accountability in privatized public enterprises in Nigeria (a study of Oando (Unipetrol) plc in Enugu state).

Despite an impressive level of privatization activity across Africa and the upsurge in search of the operating performance of privatized firms in both developed and developing economies, our empirical knowledge of the privatization program in Africa is limited. The purpose of this study is to appraise the post-privatization cost and operating performance as well as the accountability of some privatized public enterprises in Nigeria. A survey research design was adopted for the study, sixty-five internal audit and thirty-five accounting. Totally one hundred was randomly sampled and stratified among the staff of Oando plc Enugu state. Three research questions and a hypothesis tested at a 0.05 percent level of significance guided the study. Frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation were employed to answer the research questions while Z-test statistics were used to test the hypothesis. It was found that the privatization of unipetrol has led to efficient and improved cost performance and proper accountability to shareholders. We conclude and recommend among others that effective cost performance and proper accountability to shareholders is very necessary in privatized public enterprises and that the government should provide the entire necessary enabling environment for the privatized company to carry out their activities without unnecessarily increasing their cost.…