Accounting and Governance in Africa - Contributions and Opportunities for Further Research

Purpose: This paper reviews and reflects on the contributions of the Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies’ special issue on accounting and governance in Africa. Design/methodology/approach: The themes and contributions from the accepted papers are identified and discussed in relation to prior research and potential for further studies. Findings: Key aspects of boards and corporate governance, audit reporting and quality and government accounting practices are revealed as mechanisms which, in some cases, did have some consequences in the African context. However, in other cases, accounting or governance mechanisms appear to be at the periphery of organisational practice and exhibit little influence on decision making and accountability. Limitations and implications: Whilst this paper does not provide a systematic review of the literature in the African context, it provides relating to special issue’s contributions on corporate governance, audit and government accounting on the continent. Originality/value: This special issue extends the burgeoning scholarship in African accounting and governance and provides directions and opportunities for future research. Keywords

Changing control and accounting regimes in an african gold mine: emergence of new despotic control

Purpose – To examine whether the framework of management accounting transformations in Hopper et al. (2009) applies to accounting changes in the Ashanti Gold Corporation (AGC) in Ghana over 120 years from pre-colonialism to recent times. Design/methodology/approach – Mixed data sources are used, namely interviews, observations of practices, historical documentation, company reports, and research papers and theses. The results are categorized within the periods and contextual factors in the Hopper et al. framework. Findings –The Hopper et al. model was robust. Despotic controls with minimal management accounting but stewardship accounting to the head office in London prevailed under colonialism. Upon independence state capitalist policies descended into politicized state capitalism. Under nationalization the performance of mines deteriorated and accounting became decoupled from operations. However, AGC remained privately owned, it embraced profit centres and budgeting, and was relatively successful commercially. In the early 1980s fiscal crises forced Ghana’s government to turn to the World Bank and IMF for loans. Their conditions precipitated market capitalism embracing widespread privatisations. This marked a gradual transformation of AGC into a foreign multinational, organized along divisional lines that today exercises despotic control through supply chain management that renders labour precarious, and neglects corporate social accounting. Practical implications – The work challenges neo-classical economic prescriptions and analyses of accounting in developing countries by indicating its neglect of the interests of other stakeholders, especially labour and civil society. Originality/value – The paper tests and extends the Hopper et al. framework with respect to a large private multinational in the commodity sector over an extended period

Varieties of neo-colonialism: government accounting reforms in Anglophone and Francophone Africa - Benin and Ghana compared

This study compares government accounting reforms in an Anglophone and a Francophone African country, namely Ghana and Benin, with respect to neo-colonialism. The data draws from interviews with local officials concerned with government accounting, documents and documentaries. The focus lay on the perceived effectiveness of reforms, and their formulation and implementation. In both countries their former colonial powers, Britain and France, still influence accounting through economic means (through monetary systems), international financial institutions, political advisors, Northern accounting associations and neo-patrimonialism. However, their use of these differs. While France structures her control mostly around the monetary system established during colonialism, Britain relies on its post-colonial infrastructure and accounting profession, and concedes much influence to the USA, essentially through international financial institutions. France exerts more direct control through advisors than Britain (with the USA). The French approach is conceptualized as coercive-neo-colonialism and the British as soft-neo-colonialism. Despite international financial institutions’ pervasive presence, they are not monolithic agents with a uniform role and influence in Ghana and Benin, and good governance aims to increase civil service capacity, financial transparency and accountability remain problematic