ETHICS AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE NIGERIAN CIVIL SERVICE: A CASE OF FEDERAL INLAND REVENUE 

ABSTRACT
This study interrogates the root causes of persistent unethical comportment, erosion of Values, and poor accountability in the contemporary civil service with a focus on the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Enugu. The manifestations of deepening attitudinal decay, mindful abuse of official Codes and principles and hysterical stealing, riddle the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Enugu today. Deontological ethical theory was employed to explicate the rationale behind unethical disposition of the civil servants in Federal Inland Revenue Service, Enugu. The proponents of this theory include Immanuel Kant, who argued that to act in the morally right way, people must act from duty.  We averred that accountability of civil servants is essential to achieve effective service delivery. However, it is observed that to ensure sanity, progress and development in the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Enugu, Code of ethics, provision of good working Conditions and accountability are tripartite essentiality and that institutions of enforcement Mechanisms are crucial in achieving this. Hence, veritable and feasible courses of action were put forward to improve the sorry State of ethics and accountability in the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Enugu.