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This paper assessed accuracy level in accounting for government funds in Nigeria's federal treasury and their faithful presentation in government financial reporting. It aimed to determine whether the reported annual balances in Nigeria's financial reporting were reliable or otherwise. Data used in analysis were obtained from secondary sources from federal treasury.

Ex-post “facto” analysis method was adopted in the study involving the use of statistical techniques of absolute or aggregate mean percentage error derived from differences between recomputed and published fund balances and was employed. This was augmented with interactive review meetings of the initial case research report with the management of Nigeria's audit agency.

Results distilled from the consolidated revenue fund (CRF), development fund and public debt show that recomputed values were greater than the fund balances in the gazetted financial statements. Results for contingency fund (CTF), federation account fund (FAF), special trust fund (STF) and sundry deposit fund yield equal figures and accurate. The paper concludes that there were serial understatements of the core public fund balances in the financial statements over the years. This trend of reporting incorrect in three core public funds in financial statements rendered Nigeria's financial position unreliable in the affected years for decisions. It also facilitated frauds, mismanagement of funds and corrupt practices.

The scope of the research is restricted to assessment of degree of accuracy in fund accounting, faithful representation of the respective fund balance in the liabilities side of FGN balance sheet and the reliability of the financial position. But, it did not consider or cover the implementation of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs) in federal treasury since FGN had not issued any full IPSAS–oriented financial statements as on 2015.

Identification of deficiencies in fund account balances, structural defects in fund accounting and acts of understatement of carrying balances in CRF and capital development fund (CDF) implies that the aggregate core fund liabilities reported in financial statement of government entities without corresponding assets do not actually reflect a true and fair financial position in some countries. It reveals remarkable degree of financial information asymmetry in government financial reporting. Illusionary fund accounting has direct linkage to poor fiscal governance in many sovereign with associated sub-optimal delivery of public goods and service level distress syndrome in many economies; lead to poverty, unemployment, crisis and macroeconomic disturbances.

The study contributes to the development of fund accounting system; strengthening government financial reporting architecture and practices. It provides framework for tracking financial information asymmetry in government financial reporting and mismanagement of public funds. It provides platform to effect necessary adjustment (correction) during the “first time 3-year adoption” adjustment window in Nigeria. Flowing from the findings, it advocates for institutionalization of government fund accounting standards and provides evidence for migration to accrual accounting system in countries that have not already implemented it. Evaluation system developed herein will improve fund management in federal treasury and contribute to efficient public financial management, good governance and enhance development of public accounting practice.

This exploratory empirical research is the one to ever evaluate accuracy level of fund accounting in sovereign entities and faithful representation in government's financial position prior to implementation of accrual accounting and financial reporting. The study established substantial level of illusionary accounting for public funds and information asymmetry in published government's financial reporting. It is necessary to rectify these discrepancies in fund accounting and financial reporting prior to and or during the first three years of the IPSAS transition implementation programme. These research deliverables provide adopters with relevant data for adjustment accounting during the transition period in strengthening public financial reporting in order to realize the benefit of full IPSAS accrual accounting.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the claim that Western accounting reforms, in particular the adoption of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs) would enhance transparency and accountability and reduce corruption in patronage-based developing countries such as Nigeria.

The paper utilises the patron/clientelism framework to examine the dynamics of Western accounting reforms in the Nigerian patronage-based society, in which the institutions of governance and regulatory structures are arguably weak. The paper utilises archival data and interviews conducted with representatives of state bodies (elected politicians and officials) and professional accounting associations.

Results from two major reforms (the sale of government-owned residential properties in Lagos and the monetisation of fringe benefits for public officials) are presented. Despite the claim of the adoption of Western accounting standards, and in particular IPSAS 17, which requires full accrual accounting and the utilisation of fair value in property valuation, historical cost accounting appeared to have been mobilised to massively corrupt the process for the benefit of politicians, other serving and retired public officials and family members.

This study contributes to the current literature by providing evidence of the relationship between patronage, corruption and accounting in wealth redistribution in the patronage-based Nigerian socio-political and economic context.

This paper aims to examine various factors affecting the pricing of audit services and the selection of auditors in the Indian audit market. This paper also aims to investigate the impact of financial distress conditions on the audit pricing and auditor choice decisions of a firm, particularly in the context of a developing economy.

The sample comprises 22,644 firm-years for 1,366 Indian firms from 1990 to 2015. The authors adopt ordinary least squares regression technique to model audit fee, and logistic regression technique to model auditor choice as a function of various factors relating to firm attributes and auditor characteristics.

This paper finds that auditors tend to charge an audit fee premium when they are affiliated to a Big 4 auditor, have industry specialization or jointly provide auditing and non-auditing services. Additionally, firms with larger boards, higher proportion of independent board of directors and CEO–Chairman separation are more likely to choose a Big 4-affiliated auditor. The results also suggest that financially distressed firms tend to pay significantly lower audit fees and are more likely to choose non-Big 4 auditors.

This paper is among the few studies which investigate how financial distress impacts the audit pricing and auditor choice decisions of a firm in the context of emerging economies. The findings of this paper raises serious concerns about the credibility of the audited financial statements and corporate governance mechanisms of firms undergoing financial distress. The empirical results of this paper have strong implications for practitioners, regulators and investors.

The purpose of this paper is to examine problems of housing delivery in Nigeria and propose some guiding principles that will lead to successful housing delivery in Nigeria.

The study was conducted through in-depth analysis of some documents related to housing sector in Nigeria. These include National Housing Policy of Nigeria, Report of the Vision 2020 National Technical Working Group on Housing, as well as publications from UN-Habitat. Moreover, literature on the subject matter have been also reviewed.

Major constraints to housing delivery in Nigeria includes lack of effective housing finance system, unstable macroeconomic environment, difficulty in accessing land with secure tenure, high cost of building materials, shortages of skilled labour and poor infrastructural facilities.

The major limitation of this study is that no interview or field survey to collect data from stakeholders has been performed.

The study can assist housing policy makers to understands important elements that must be incorporated in the national housing policies. It can also assist construction industries to understand how to improve efficiency and productivity in their projects.

The findings of this paper was based on previous studies of housing delivery and analysis of data from some formal and informal documents The findings from this study have been used to suggest some guiding principles that can assist in solving the housing delivery problems in Nigeria.

The non-existence of the corporate governance (CG) concept for practices by non-financial medium-sized firms (MSFs) in Nigeria informed. This study aims to determine whether CG practices influence firms’ performance and whether sustainability initiative (SI) mediates the relationship between CG and MSFs’ performance in Nigeria.

A total of 300 firms were selected on convenience sampling basis from South Western Nigeria using a structured questionnaire. The authors used Statistical Package for Social Sciences for exploratory data analysis and hypotheses were tested using covariance-based structural equation modelling.

The results show that CG has a significant positive effect on performance [financial performance (FNP) and non-financial performance (NFP)] and SI. SI has a mixed impact on performance, e.g. a significant positive impact on NFP but insignificant negative impact on FNP. Similarly, SI has a combined mediating effect in the relationship between CG and performance, e.g. fully mediates CG → NFP and does not mediate CG → FNP. Firms are to invest in social and environmental initiatives substantially. CG codes will complement the International Financial Reporting Standards for MSFs.

This study supports the assumptions of theories (institutional, stakeholder and agency) as the basis for the usage of multiple approaches to determine the outcome of hypotheses, especially in developing climes.

The study contributes to CG and performance literature by examining the mediating effects of SI. The paper also shows the necessity to emphasise NFP aspect. Policymakers should evolve CG codes to encourage stakeholders to believe more in the corporate existence of MSFs for strengthening capital-base and quality personnel engagement.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first empirical attempts showing the evidence on the relationship between CG and NFP in Nigeria.

This paper aims to examine issues of bribery, cronyism and nepotism in one of the most corrupt countries in Africa.

This is a single-country case study, drawing on material dating from the mid-1970s, including court cases.

The corruption is pervasive and systemic, showing severe problems with governance in general, in the sector and against corruption. Nonetheless, two operators, one South African and one Nigerian, have delivered extensive access to mobile networks.

The system of governance requires significant structural reforms, if the burden of corruption is to be reduced.

This paper sheds new and explicit light on the complex history of telecommunications in Nigeria. It adds to the small base of material on corruption in the telecommunications sector. It identifies issues that could usefully be taken up by institutions in Nigeria.

Petroleum products are prime commercial sources of energy throughout the world in spite of the impressive efforts of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and European Economic Community (EEC) to find viable alternatives. Energy is the vehicle for economic development and the policy of the Nigerian government is that petroleum should be tapped, developed and optimally distributed for the overall development of society. Owing to several factors, the distribution and marketing of petroleum products have developed hydra‐headed problems constituting a major source of concern and embarrassment to the government, private organisations and individuals.

The purpose of this paper is to review the recent judgement of the Federal High Court exempting Nigerian lawyers from anti-money laundering (AML) obligations and to proffer suggestions as to ways of complying with international standards.

An analysis of the case and judgement was undertaken and a commentary on the effect of the obligations on lawyers was given. As a result of the analysis, suggestions were made to satisfy regulatory requirements while recognising the sanctity of the legal profession and the professional responsibilities members owe to their clients.

AML obligations are tasking and may impact negatively on rights of both lawyers and of their clients. However, with some measures taken by both regulators and lawyers, loopholes can be comfortably covered without leaving the legal sector exposed to criminal intents.

There has not been any appeal on the case, and therefore the paper may not be conclusive.

Very relevant recommendations were made and, if taken up, may provide a meeting point for both parties and achieve the key purpose of detecting and/or preventing money laundering.

This is the first academic paper to analyse the current case and to provide relevant suggestions on the matter.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of banking stability in Africa.

The authors present four measures of banking stability embedding banks’ loan loss coverage ratio, insolvency risk, asset quality ratio, and level of financial development, thereby allowing analysis of banking stability determinants from four complementary perspectives: protection for downside credit losses, distress arising from insolvency risk, non-performing loans, and financial development. The authors use the regression methodology to estimate the impact of financial structure, institutional, bank-level factors on bank stability.

The findings indicate that banking efficiency, foreign bank presence, banking concentration, size of banking sector, government effectiveness, political stability, regulatory quality, investor protection, corruption control and unemployment levels are significant determinant of banking stability in Africa and the significance of each determinant depends on the banking stability proxy employed and depends on the period of analysis: pre-crisis, during-crisis or post-crisis.

Banking supervisors in African countries should consider the role of financial structure and institutional quality for banking stability in the African region.

This study is the first to examine banking stability determinants in Africa that takes into account institutional quality and financial structure.

This study examines the effects of foreign branch activity on commercial banks in the Central, Eastern, and Southeastern European countries for the period 1995–2015. The author shows that more foreign bank branches are present in countries that have higher taxes and regulatory restrictions on bank activity. The increased activity of foreign bank branches adversely affects lending by foreign banks, and to a lesser extent, that of state-owned banks. The author attributes this finding to the fact that foreign bank branches and foreign banks compete for the same type of clients, namely, multinational corporations.