Creative accounting and financial scandals in Nigeria: structures an actors analysis

Abstract

The critical factor in a number of corporate collapses was the use of creative and manipulative accounting practices to distort reported profitability and indebtedness. As accounting forms a central element of any business success or failure, its role is crucial in understanding such scandals which have cost investors millions of dollars and in other cases, inflicting misery on millions of people. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate about the consequences of creative accounting and its role in causing corporate collapse in Nigeria. Within a socio-political framework, this paper adopts the theories of critical realism to explore the relationship between social agency and the institutional structures that shape social actors. The paper uses publicly available data to show the role of creative accounting and significance of financial scandals in Nigeria. The evidence implicates accounting professionals and corporate managers in creative accounting. The paper also offers some suggestions for reform.