Neoliberalism, ‘honour’-based regulatory frameworks of accounting and accountability in a social context: An examination of the role of accounting in the management of subsidies on petroleum products in Nigeria
Owolabi M. Bakre , Sean McCartney , Simeon Femi Fayemi , Mohammad Nurunnabi , Saad Almosa
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Nigeria subsidises the cost of petroleum products for its citizens, but corruption means that the cost is rising and to maintain the subsidy, Nigeria has sought financial support from international financial institutions, such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. However, this support is contingent on neoliberal economic policy reform, in which the World Bank calls for the removal of petroleum product subsidies and the implementation of Western ‘honour’-based regulatory frameworks, that is, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), to improve transparency and accountability. Considering endemic corruption in the Nigerian cultural and socio-political context, where political elites can override any rule and politicians, public officials, and professionals can intentionally manipulate accounting records, we examine the limits of governance/accounting frameworks and explore the boundaries of accountants’ oversight function. In particular, we discuss the impact of ‘honour’-based regulatory frameworks, such as IFRS and IPSAS, on transparency and accountability in the Nigerian oil and gas sector and in the government subsidy programme. This study challenges the neoliberal assumption that Western ‘honour’-based IFRS and IPSAS, widely adopted in developed countries where fraud is rare, can improve transparency and accountability in developing economies like Nigeria, where corruption is endemic.
期刊介绍:
Critical Perspectives on Accounting aims to provide a forum for the growing number of accounting researchers and practitioners who realize that conventional theory and practice is ill-suited to the challenges of the modern environment, and that accounting practices and corporate behavior are inextricably connected with many allocative, distributive, social, and ecological problems of our era. From such concerns, a new literature is emerging that seeks to reformulate corporate, social, and political activity, and the theoretical and practical means by which we apprehend and affect that activity. Research Areas Include: • Studies involving the political economy of accounting, critical accounting, radical accounting, and accounting''s implication in the exercise of power • Financial accounting''s role in the processes of international capital formation, including its impact on stock market stability and international banking activities • Management accounting''s role in organizing the labor process • The relationship between accounting and the state in various social formations • Studies of accounting''s historical role, as a means of "remembering" the subject''s social and conflictual character • The role of accounting in establishing "real" democracy at work and other domains of life • Accounting''s adjudicative function in international exchanges, such as that of the Third World debt • Antagonisms between the social and private character of accounting, such as conflicts of interest in the audit process • The identification of new constituencies for radical and critical accounting information • Accounting''s involvement in gender and class conflicts in the workplace • The interplay between accounting, social conflict, industrialization, bureaucracy, and technocracy • Reappraisals of the role of accounting as a science and technology • Critical reviews of "useful" scientific knowledge about organizations