Accountants’ ethics and fraud control in Nigeria : the emergence of a fraud control model

This paper examined the influence of accountants’ ethics on fraud control. Data were drawn from a review of the literature on ethics and fraud. Using content analysis, major ethical considerations, fraud risk factors, control procedures and the effects of internal control system on fraud detection in Banks were identified. Scholars reached a conclusion in which fraud and fraudulent activities are found to have inflicted severe financial difficulties on Banks and their customers. However, findings indicate that the national value system greatly moderates the extent to which ethics, illustrating from the accountants perspective minimises fraud. Consequently, a fraud control model was developed highlighting the national value system factor in fraud management. The people’s behavioural pattern and philosophy anchored on ethical considerations should reflect honesty, integrity and value of knowledge. This will enhance productivity and good corporate governance. In this manner, fraud will be reduced.peer-reviewe

Financial Reporting and Organizational Liquidity in Nigeria: the Accounting Bases Perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the influence of financial reporting from the perspective of accrual and cash bases on organisational liquidity; with cashflow adopted as a measure of liquidity. Agricultural companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange were studied. Data are collected through questionnaire. Analyses were performed using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s product moment coefficient of correlation. Findings indicate that accrual basis sub-domain of financial reporting has a statistically significant weak negative relationship with cashflow while cash basis has a statistically significant moderate positive association with cashflow. Similarly, results of the descriptive statistics indicate that the adoption of accrual basis improves cashflow by 48.5% while that of cash basis improves cashflow by 85.0%. Based on empirical findings, it was concluded that cash basis of financial reporting provides a better assessment of liquidity in the context of cashflow than accrual basis. Consequently, financial reporting should emphasis liquidity, particularly, through the incorporation of cashflow statements; this will enhance identification of organisation’s ability to meet obligations as they become due. Keywords:Financial reporting, liquidity, agriculture, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Nigeria

Cost of Loan Capital and Capital Asset Acquisition in Nigeria: Implications on Organisational Profitability

This paper discusses the extent to which cost of loan capital (measured in terms of interest charges) moderates the influence of capital asset on organisational profitability from the perspective of construction companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Data are collected through questionnaire. Analyses were performed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s product moment co-efficient of correlation and multiple regression analysis. From the findings, capital asset as a resource significantly accounted for changes in organisational profitability measured in terms of net profit by 34.81%. The emergence of cost of loan capital (as a moderating variable) introducing borrowed funds improved the explanatory power to 38.1%. However, an evaluation of the individual regression coefficients indicate that cost of loan capital has the least contribution per naira of net profit, apparently, due to the fact that interest charges reduce net profit. Against the thinking of some scholars, borrowed funds which attract costs in the context of interest charges enhance cashflow for investment in capital assets and improvement of organisational profitability. In sourcing for funds to improve profitability, the impact of cost of loan capital in its individual capacity should be considered. Key words:  Cost of loan capital, capital asset, profitability, construction, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Nigeria

Accountant’s Perspective of Advances in Technology of Capital Assets and Financial Performance in Nigeria: A focus on the Construction Industry

This paper examines from the accountant’s perspective, the relationship between advances in technology of capital assets and financial performance of construction companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Data were collected through questionnaire. Analyses were performed by means of descriptive statistics and Pearson product moment coefficient of correlation using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). Findings indicate that advances in technology of capital assets measured in terms of efficiency have a statistically significantly strong positive relationship with financial performance. Results of descriptive statistics indicate that efficiency of capital assets arising from advances in technology of capital assets influences contract patronages by 54.5%. In conclusion, capital assets acquired without cognisance of global modernisation in machines and equipment may shortly suffer from obsolescence and thus become unable to deliver value for money services

The self-defining period in autobiographical memory: Evidence from a long-running radio show.

This study is the first to demonstrate that a self-defining period (SP) for personally relevant music emerges spontaneously in a public naturalistic setting. While previous research has demonstrated that people tend to have better memory and preference for songs from their teenage years, the theoretical relevance of these studies has been limited by their reliance on forced-choice methodology and a confinement to contemporary popular Western music. Here, we examine the record choices of famous guests (n = 80; mean age = 61.6 years) interviewed for Desert Island Discs, a long-running popular radio programme on BBC Radio 4. Half of all choices were shown to have been most important between the ages of 10 and 30 years, and the most popular reason for their relevance was the song's link to memories of a person, period, or place. We suggest that music is a defining feature of the SP, intrinsically connected to the developing self

Determining Ω\Omega from cluster correlation function

It is shown how data on the cluster correlation function can be used in order to reconstruct the density of the pregalactic density field on the cluster mass scale. The method is applied to the data on the cluster correlation amplitude -- richness dependence. The spectrum of the recovered density field has the same shape as the density field derived from data on the galaxy correlation function which is measured as function of linear scales. Matching the two amplitudes relates the mass to the comoving scale it contains and thereby leads to a direct determination of $\Omega$. The resultant density parameter turns out to be $\Omega$=0.25.Comment: to appear in Physics Reports, "Dark Matter 98", vol.30

Some Basic Concepts of Accounting: A Critical Appraisal

Financial statements of Enterprises are usually depended upon by a wide variety of users in making economic decisions about an enterprise. In order to ensure that these Statements are useful to the common needs of users, the accountancy profession has developed a framework of ideas generally accepted as the foundation on which accounting rests. Taking into consideration the fact that many of these ideas (often variously referred to as concepts, conventions, postulates etc) conflict with each other, one wonders whether accounting concepts or conventions lead to users getting what they need from a set of financial statements. This paper offers a critical appraisal of various accounting concepts and concluded that accounting concepts or conventions are likely to be of relatively different importance to different users of financial statements

Biological stress regulation in female adolescents: a key role for confiding

Attachment behaviors play a critical role in regulating emotion within the context of close relationships, and attachment theory is currently used to inform evidence-based practice in the areas of adolescent health and social care. This study investigated the association between female adolescents’ interview-based attachment behaviors and two markers of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis activity: cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Unlike the classic stress hormone cortisol, there is very limited investigation of DHEA—a quintessential developmental hormone—in relation to attachment, especially in adolescents. Fifty-five healthy females mean age 14.36 (±2.41) years participated in the attachment style interview. A smaller cortisol awakening response was related to anxious attachment attitudes, including more fear of rejection, whereas greater morning basal DHEA secretion was only predicted by lower levels of reported confiding in one’s mother. These attachment–hormone relationships may be developmental markers in females, as they were independent of menarche status. These findings highlight that the normative shifts occurring in attachment to caregivers around adolescence are reflected in adolescents’ biological stress regulation. We discuss how studying these shifts can be informed by evolutionary– developmental theory

A study of the arkshell clams, Noetia ponderosa (Say 1822) and Anadara ovalis (Bruguière 1789), in the oceanside lagoons and tidal creeks of Virginia

Two species of arkshell (\u27\u27blood\u27\u27) clams. Noelia ponderosa and Anadara ova/is. have recently been targeted by watermen on the eastern shore of Virginia for sale to both East and West Coast markets in the United States. Until 1991. fishermen caught both species in the harvest of oysters and hard clams, and discarded them as bycatch with little value. Very little is known about either species of blood clam. and preliminary data from a pilot study in 1993 indicated that they were being over-fished. We conducted a survey in September 1994 in the oceanside lagoon system along the eastern shore of Accomac and Nonhampton Counties, Virginia. and collected data on density. abundance. habitat preference. age-size and morphometric relationships. and mortality rates for both species of blood clams. as well as some ancillary data on the hard clam, Mercenaria mercenaria. The study provides baseline data for establishing management practices and regulations for the blood clam fishery. The total estimated abundance in the study area was about 16 million N. ponderosa and 6.4 mi llion A. ova/is. Of the clams taken in commercial catches on the oceanside of the eastern shore, M. mercenaria constitutes about 84%, N. ponderosa 15%, and A. ova/is I%. in our field survey, M. mercenaria was the most abundant species (72% of the total catch), followed by N. ponderosa ( 17%) and A. ova/is ( 11 %). Densities for blood clams averaged 0.35 clams m-2, or 3,500 clams per hectare. and were highest in shell and shell/mud substrate (I. I and 1.2 clams m- 2 • respectively). Growth studies and age-size data show that A. ova/is grows about twice as fast as N. ponderosa and that market-size N. ponderosa (about 56 mm in shell height) may be 8+ years old. We also present information on mortality rates and morphometric relationships for both species of blood clams, and recommendations for maintaining and enhancing the fishery