Demographics and Ethical Dilemma in the Accounting Profession: The Gender Paradigm (Published)
This study examined the influence of the gender demographic variable on ethical behaviour arising from the lack of conclusive evidence on whether gender really counts. The study was premised on the relativity and attribution theories of human behaviour. Modelled after the survey design, primary data was obtained via a structure research data collection instrument administered to both accounting trainees and practitioners. Of one hundred and fifteen questionnaires administered to these two categories of respondents, ninety-five were completed and returned, which were analysed using descriptive statistics and inferential operationalized via the e-views 7 platform. The findings of this study revealed that gender has a negative effect on ethics using the accounting student’s data, while a positive effect is observed using the practicing accountant’s data. This observation amongst practitioners about the influence of gender attribute may not be unconnected with the pressure arising from the need to meet up with growing financial responsibilities for the male gender upon coming of age as stereotyped by our culture. However, both effects were significant at five percent level. This is quite informative as it is reflective of the circumstantial differences in the background of the two respondent groups. What this implies is that if accounting educators and professional bodies build confidence and ethical capacity early enough, in would be accounting practitioners, it might lead to reduced dysfunctional behaviour at work. Therefore, the study recommends early behaviour modification modelling for ethical conduct. The implications of this findings are therefore far reaching, thus the need to interrogate the place of age and marital status in determining ethical dilemma.
Keywords: Ethical behaviour, Ethics, Professional behaviour, accounting ethics
Towards Improving the Effectiveness of the Public Procurement Rules of Bangladesh: Lessons from the United Nations Procurement Manual (Published)
Every year Bangladesh has to incur about 14 billion USD through Annual Development Program (ADP) for the procurement of goods, works and services in the public sector. Bangladesh has her home grown laws and regulations to ensure transparency, accountability, fairness, open competition to ensure value for money in the public spending. To this end, Bangladesh is constantly adapting international standard practices. United Nations (UN) has a unique procurement manual through which it procures all the goods, works and services. The standards followed by the UN can be compared with those of the Public Procurement Rules (PPR) of Bangladesh and lessons can be incorporated in Bangladesh to streamline the public procurement.
Keywords: Ethics, Procurement, Works, committees, evaluation criteria, goods, services
Ethical Principles and Faithful Representation of Financial Reports of Quoted Companies in Nigeria (Published)
Business transaction records form the basis of financial statements which inform stewardship assessment and investment decisions. Good financial reports aid informed economic decisions which enhance efficiency in the allocation of resources. Allegations are rife of cases of deliberate falsification of financial statements even in the face of internal and external auditors, accounting standards and financial regulations. Using survey research design based on a population of 4893 accountants and auditors of 169 quoted companies and four regulatory bodies in Nigeria, the study investigated the relationship between ethical principles and faithful representation of financial reports. Four hundred copies of the research instrument with a reliability test coefficient of 0.830 using the Cronbach’s alpha statistics were distributed with a 92.5% return rate. Data analysis employed the use of descriptive and inferential statistics. The results indicate that ethical principles influence financial reporting quality significantly ( F(4, 366) = 298.719, Adj. R2 = 0.763, p = 0 .000). The study recommends continuous ethical orientation for accountants, managers and auditors of Nigerian quoted companies.
Keywords: Ethics, Faithful representation, Financial Report, Investment decisions, Quoted companies
The Current Ethical Challenges in The Nigerian Commercial Banking Sector (Review Completed - Accepted)
Ethics and morals are seen as personal view points. No minding the viewpoint, south ethical and moral values are very relevant in the banking industry. Ethics consist of certain rules and standards of conduct recognised as binding in a professional body, association or organisation, which is binding in the members. This paper discusses the relevant functions of commercial banks, and the ethical challenges in the performance of these functions. It evaluates the current ethical challenges in the banking industry, discusses the roles various regulatory agencies, have to play, in the adherence to ethical values, and advances solutions that will combat the aforementioned ethical and unethical challenges for the commercial banks to survive, ethical and moral values must be respected and adhered to, and sanctions meted out to erring individuals, that disobey the rules. This paper is descriptive in nature as it examines, the ethical issues, challenges and recommendations involved in ethical practices by commercial bankers in Nigeria. It proffers far reaching solutions to these ethical/unprofessional challenges in the commercial banking sector in Nigeria
Keywords: BOFIA Act, Balance Sheet, CIBN, Commercial Bank, Engineering, Ethics, Poaching, Round Training, Unethical Activities