【正文】 unpatriotic tendency on the part of the leaders, as regards the implantation of the regulations。t subject the budget estimates to much scrutiny, as the civilian representatives would do. This, again, means no control. APPROPRIATION ACT OR DECREE The President for the payment issue or withdrawal of money prepares an appropriation bill from Consolidated Revenue Fund or any other government fund. An appropriation bill when passed into law by the legislature (or military council) and endorsed by the President is called an Appropriation Act or Decree. The Appropriation Act or Decree is enacted annually to regulate financial and accounting matters. The bill is about the budget estimate for the revenues to be generated and the expenditures to be incurred, both capital and recurrent. The problem with the bill is that it is always about estimates made on the basis of incrementalism. Incremental billing is irrational, nonprehensive and subjective. These characteristics are normally transferred by the proposed bill and its resulting Act or Decree into the actual functioning of the economy and its managers. PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES The specific problems hampering financial regulations at the Federal government level, and which are manifesting in continuous financial in efficiency, can be discussed under the following subheadings: 1. Human Elements This, in any system, is the most essential but the most difficult to control. Getting qualified people who can accurately interpret and apply the financial regulations is a source of worry in government quarters. The attitude to work of the officers who interpret and apply the regulations, and the speed with which the regulations are being applied and interpreted, count very much in the realization of efficiency in the operations of government. The government is finding it very difficult to obtain and retain an adequate number of qualified accounting and finance personnel that can manage its accounting and financial duties as expected by various legislation. Government accounting and financial systems are not being managed by people who have got their training from some professional bodies like ACCA, ANAN, ICAN, ICMA, etc it is managed mostly, by people who joined the civil services after basic education, with the intention of making a career in the civil service. Accounting and finance graduates are not being attracted to the civil service may be because of the paratively poor conditions of service of the public sector. To achieve the full benefits of financial regulations, government should be able to employ qualified accountants and accounting graduates who can interpret and apply the financial regulations. Alternatively, all those civil servants managing the finance of the government should be adequately retrained in line with the challenges of their different offices. 2. Implementation Problems Programmes implementation is a basic problem in Nigeria. Plans might look very good, but when it es to implementation, performance is poor. This attitude can be said to be the bane of the country39。t appear to bother about its report, let alone thinking of actually implementing its remendations. So, PAC especially under the Military is seen as a toothless bulldog! Decree 8 of 1987 and Decree 34 of 1990, which are on PAC and implementation of its decisions, are a mockery. Secondly, the AccountantGeneral of the Federation appears not to be able to submit the annual Reports to the AuditorGeneral in time. The AuditorGeneral for the Federation once plained that the AccountantGeneral was giving him accounts of the Federation in a piecemeal manner (Lawanson, 1992). This shows that the treasury has been unable to meet some of the qualities of a good report, which include timeliness, pleteness accuracy, reliability, objectivity, understandability and parability. With a piece meal presentation of reports, and in a delayed manner, none of the qualities mentioned would be achieved and, so, there would be no control. THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION The 1999 constitution is the amended version of the 1979 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which was an offshoot, not only of the 1963 Constitution but, of the other Preindependence Constitutions. So, its provisions are in most respects similar to those of its predecessors (or ancestors). The Constitution was reviewed in 1989 and 1994, with no hope for implementation until May 1999 when the new civilian government was sworn in. It was promulgated as constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Decree No 24), 1999 and published in the Federal Republic of Nigeria official Gazette on 5th