Trendy v podnikání (Jun 2017)
Impasse of the 21st century accountants: Need for ethical revolution, enforcement of accounting guidelines and discipline
Abstract
Ethical uprising, enforcement of accounting guidelines and discipline by statutory accounting body is an issue of concern that need to be uphold due to the succession of corporate scandals that took place in Nigeria and the world over, thereby undermining the image of the accountancy profession. These corporate scandals in no doubt challenged the credibility of financial statements, auditing and corporate governance practices for which accountants are directly linked with. In this paper, we examined the impasse of the 21st century accountants and the need for ethical revolution, enforcement of accounting guidelines and discipline by statutory accounting body for erring accountants. Several impasses facing the 21st century accountants were identified such as expectation gap (resulting to loss of public confidence in the profession), falsifying financial statements and engaging in ‘negative accounting’ among others. Questionnaire was administered to three (3) classes of respondents (investors, auditors and accounting regulatory bodies) and the data obtained were subjected to Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The study found that the impasse facing the 21st century accountants can be repealed via ethical revolution, enforcement of accounting guidelines and discipline by statutory accounting body for erring accountants. Owing to the above findings, we proposed that the accounting regulatory bodies and the government should sanction accountants and firms engaged in unscrupulous accounting practices as well as revoking the licenses of professional accountants that precipitate such actions. As a matter of fact, seminars and workshop on issues relating to ethics and accounting guidelines should be organized for professional accountants. Also, code of professional conducts should be strictly enforced on all professional accountants by the regulatory body. It is our candid believe that if these recommendations are fully implemented, it will go a long way in addressing the impasses facing the 21st century accountants in Nigeria and the world over.
