02.09.2026journal-article
Finance & Accounting Research Journal
Machine learning for fraud detection in public sector financial systems
Purpose: Public sector financial systems process large volumes of payments, procurement transactions and grants and remain exposed to fraud, corruption and error. Traditional audit-based controls detect only a small share of irregular transactions and usually do so late. This study examines whether machine learning can improve detection of fraudulent transactions in public sector financial systems and compares model families under conditions resembling real government data, including severe class imbalance and scar …