IMPACT OF INTEGRATED FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS ON GOVERNANCE IN DEVELOPING ECONOMIES

Abstract

Corruption in Nigeria’s public sector remains a systemic challenge undermining governance, economic development, and public trust. This study investigates the effectiveness of Nigeria’s Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) in curbing corruption within the public sector. The study relies on primary data obtained through structured Likert-scale questionnaires administered to public sector employees. The population comprises Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of the Oyo State Government, from which a purposive (judgmental) sample of 10 MDAs was selected based on their strategic involvement in financial management and the implementation of IPPIS and GIFMIS. Out of 100 questionnaires distributed, 75 valid responses were retrieved and used for analysis. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression was employed as the main method of data analysis. Regression results further reveal that IPPIS (–0.412, p = 0.011) and GIFMIS (–0.356, p = 0.014) exert statistically significant negative effects on corruption, jointly explaining about 43% of the variation in corruption reduction (R² = 0.428). These findings indicate that both IPPIS and GIFMIS significantly reduce payroll fraud and enhance expenditure transparency. Based on these results, the study recommends the deeper integration of IPPIS and GIFMIS into a unified financial management framework, strengthened institutional enforcement and auditing mechanisms, and sustained capacity-building for public sector personnel to enhance the long-term effectiveness of digital anti-corruption reforms.