Linking Accounting/Auditing Environment and the Remittances of Africans in Diaspora

This paper investigates empirically the link between the inflow of Diasporas remittances and the environment of accounting/auditing in 10 African countries. The result using Spearman’s rank correlation indicates the existence of a positive relationship (correlation coefficient rs is 0.36), but the strength of the relationship is weak (significant level of 0.05). The quality of accounting and auditing as represented by their environment is a stimulus that could enhance the inflow of Diasporas remittances. The study therefore recommends that African countries should strategically and proactively refocus attention on developing accounting/auditing environment in order to attract reasonable volume of remittances

Adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Africa: benefits, prospects and challenges

This paper presents the findings of an empirical study on the benefits, prospects and challenges of adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in some African countries. A questionnaire was administered to gather data from respondents made up of users and preparers of accounting information using the Twitter social network. The objective was to find out the perception of users and preparers about what the benefits, prospects and challenges of IFRS adoption are in African countries. The results of the study indicate that IFRS adoption in Africa will have the potential to be beneficial to a wide range of stakeholders. The benefits notwithstanding, there are however, a number of challenges to be faced in the process of adoption of the new standard including the ethical environment in Africa. The study recommends among others that a rigorous IFRS capacity building programme should be embarked upon by all regulatory bodies, firms and training institutions in order to provide the needed manpower for IFRS implementation, monitoring and compliance

Macro models of UK construction contract prices

This paper describes the derivation of macro construction contract price models that are based on the economic theory of demand and supply using OLS multiple regression analysis. A structural equation model is presented which offers a structural explanation of the movements in the construction tender price index. Leading indicators of contract prices (in real terms) produced by the structural equations were unemployment level, real interest rate, manufacturing profitability, number of registered construction firms, building cost index, construction productivity and construction work stoppages. The equation produced an adjusted R2 of 0.97 for deflated data with minimal serial autocorrelation. A predictive reduced-form model is also developed that utilises simultaneous equation models comprising construction demand, supply and equilibrium models

Studies on species of Asterodiaspis

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Socio – Economic and Financial Efects of Kidnapping in Birnin Gwari Local Governmant Area of Kaduna State

This paper focuses on the socio-economic and financial effects of kidnapping in BirninGwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from the study area. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Chi-square (χ2) statistic was used to test the hypothesis. This study revealed that kidnapping has a significant effect on the socio-economic activities of the study area (χ2=13.849a, α=3, p-value=0.003). To enhance the reduction in the rate of kidnapping, the government needs to provide job opportunities for the youth, train the security agencies, and provide them with the necessary equipment to fight crime, especially kidnapping, in the country. The individual community should also form an active vigilante group or any other form of informal crime control mechanism to support the effort of the police to improve the level of security in the society. There is need for improved sensitization and collaboration between the security agencies and the community and all sections of society to pass the message of safety to Nigerians on the importance of reporting suspicious behaviour to the police and other security agencies

Renegotiation of public private partnership road contracts: Issues and outcomes

The renegotiation of road projects has been an important issue that has generated concerns in PPP procurement over the last decade. This has had serious policy implications for public procurement policy across countries because of its implications for the achievement of the objectives defined at the inception of PPP road contracts. This paper assesses the renegotiation of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects in order to identify the issues involved in renegotiation and its outcomes. Data were collected through a literature review of selected studies on PPP infrastructure projects on a sectoral basis with particular emphasis on Latin America, Portugal and Spain. It was revealed that a high proportion of PPP contracts in the transport sector are renegotiated: Indeed, in the transport sector, more PPP road projects are renegotiated than other forms of transport projects. The main factors surrounding the renegotiation of road contracts are: lack of an adequate contract design, frequent opportunistic behaviour on the part of both public and private partners during the implementation of PPP road projects, changes in the conditions affecting revenue and costs beyond the reasonable assumptions accounted for in the original contract, corruption, and political and economic instability, all of which in most instances reduce the chance of the public partner achieving its objective of value for money (VfM). The paper concludes with a discussion of the need to develop a framework for integrating considerations of value for money into the renegotiation process of PPP road contracts

Socio – Economic and Financial Efects of Kidnapping in Birnin Gwari Local Governmant Area of Kaduna State

This paper focuses on the socio-economic and financial effects of kidnapping in BirninGwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from the study area. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Chi-square (χ2) statistic was used to test the hypothesis. This study revealed that kidnapping has a significant effect on the socio-economic activities of the study area (χ2=13.849a, α=3, p-value=0.003). To enhance the reduction in the rate of kidnapping, the government needs to provide job opportunities for the youth, train the security agencies, and provide them with the necessary equipment to fight crime, especially kidnapping, in the country. The individual community should also form an active vigilante group or any other form of informal crime control mechanism to support the effort of the police to improve the level of security in the society. There is need for improved sensitization and collaboration between the security agencies and the community and all sections of society to pass the message of safety to Nigerians on the importance of reporting suspicious behaviour to the police and other security agencies

The coevolution of AEC professional work practices with technology: collaborative delivery framework modelling for BIM projects

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). Johannesburg, 2018Despite BIM’s potential to alleviate persistent construction industry challenges, its use does not guarantee results. Therefore, it was argued and established from a theoretical and practical standpoint that the implementation of BIM, an evolving technology, within pre-BIM organisational and project team work practices (as activity systems), induces their evolution through dysfunctions created in the systems and their resolution. A multi-stage\multi-method research design involving a study of BIM implementation cases, documents analysis, swimlane modelling and multi-domain-mapping (MDM) of pre-BIM and BIM-enabled project delivery processes was employed. This was to develop an understanding of how construction professional work practices evolve with the implementation of BIM. The findings show that evolutionary change of work practices within organisations precedes that of project teams. The findings further suggest a link between organisational attitude towards BIM as a method of working and success at implementing it. Using activity theory, a novel conceptual analysis of BIM induced change in professional work practices aided a theoretical understanding of the implications of implementing BIM on construction professional work practices. The theory provided a basis for analysing historical and future change patterns in professional work practices with BIM and indeed similar work mediating tools. An in-depth conceptualisation and new theoretical insight were developed on the phenomenon of new role legitimation, establishing that new BIM role takers are legitimated to exercise authority within project teams and organisations mainly because they leverage knowledge as a strategic resource. By implication, they will remain legitimate only as long as the constraint or dysfunction prompting their creation subsists. Furthermore, using swimlane and MDM modelling methods in complement, the BIM change impact on pre-BIM workflows was modelled. An objective evaluation of the BIM change impact at the pre-construction phase showed that the BIM-enabled project delivery workflows structure, compared to the pre-BIM is more connected and integrated.MT 201

Legal implications of data sharing in biobanking research in low-income settings: The Nigerian experience

It is increasingly recognised that effective and appropriate data sharing in biobanking research requires the development of models of good data-sharing policy capable of ensuring that the rights and privacy interests of participants are protected. However, the effectiveness and efficacy of biobank research depend on data and samples. In the same vein, making such data available to the research community generates tension between two important goals: advancing scientific goals, and protecting the individual privacy interests of the tissue source. More critically, data sharing requires the development of models that promote an environment in which privacy rights and interests of participants are protected throughout the lifecycle of biobank initiatives. Many ethical issues are raised when genomics research is conducted on populations characterised by lower average income and literacy levels, such as populations included in lower-middle income countries (LMICs). These issues are further exacerbated in Nigeria by cultural and religious inflections. In this paper, to analyse the implications of data sharing within the legal framework of an LMIC, an analysis of existing laws in Nigeria was conducted. It was discovered that there were no provisions relating directly to data sharing, and its governance framework could only be gleaned from the patchwork of laws on privacy and confidentiality in Nigeria. There is a need for ethical guidelines in Nigeria to be adapted to the changing landscape of science, which increasingly involves storage and secondary use of samples and data. Current laws are inadequate for the challenges presented by biobanking