Forensic Accounting as Panacea to the Challenge of Crime and Violence in the Caribbean

Crime and violence are development issues in the Caribbean. The proliferation of crimes and violence in the Caribbean nations has been a growing concern. This paper presents the worldwide emerging discipline of Forensic Accounting as a veritable Panacea to the challenges posed by crimes and violence. Using the secondary data methodology, it argues that Forensic Accounting which is the intersection between accounting, investigations, and legal matters, will provide the lasting solution which is being earnestly sought to tackle the menace of crimes and violence in the Caribbean. The paper therefore, amongst others, recommends a national and international implementation of Forensic Accounting based measures as a unified approach necessary to fight the Caribbean’s related crime and violence problems

Institutional Shareholder Engagement, Corporate Governance and Firms’ Financial Performance in Nigeria: Does any relationship exist?

Academics and business practitioners have extensively debated the dramatic increase in institutional ownership and the sudden interest of institutional shareholders in corporate governance. This paper examined the relationship that exists between institutional shareholder engagement and financial performance of selected listed firms in Nigeria. This study used primary data to describe the independent variables: namely institutional ownership, exercise of voting rights and private negotiation. It also used panel data for twenty (20) selected listed firms for the period 2011-2013. Firm’s performance was measured using Return on Asset (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE) and Tobin’s Q. Findings indicate that there is no significant relationship between institutional shareholder engagement and firms’ financial performance in Nigeria. However, the results were mixed when the performance indicators in term of ROA, ROE and Tobin’s Q. This research study suggests that institutional shareholders in Nigeria should become efficient monitors of corporate management just like what obtains in developed countries. This will ensure effective and good corporate governance practices and avoid insider abuse for the enhancement of financial performanc

AUDIT COMMITTEE CHARACTERISTICS AND NON-PERFORMING LOANS IN NIGERIAN DEPOSITS BANKS

This study examined empirically the impact of audit committee characteristics on nonperforming loans in Nigerian Deposits banks. For the purpose of this research work, secondary data was used and the instruments of data collection were financial statements. The study adopts Ex-post factor research (after the fact) design. The population of the study is 15 banks according to the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The sample size is the entire population of the study. The Study made use of multiple regression analysis and specifically the panel data regression technique. The Hausman test was used to determine the suitable regression. The result of the Hausman test showed the random effect. The findings suggested that the inclusion of financial expertise in audit committee leads to reduced level of non-performing loans in listed banks in Nigeria. Although insignificant, the relationship between the audit committee meetings and non-performing loans also revealed a negative influence. While the influence of audit committee independence on non-performing loans revealed a positive relationship. Therefore, the study recommends that financial experts on the audit committee should take in cognizance of the negative effect of increased non-performing on the performance of the listed banks and the committee meetings should discussed the ways in which non-performing loans are reduced

Does Audit Committee Characteristics Promote Risk Management Practices in Nigerian Listed Firms?

There has been a huge and deluge of risk threatening industries at an unequalled magnitude in recent times. As such, the board of directors and senior executives are increasingly expected to manage their various organizations' risk portfolios, affecting their financial performance. This has led to the assigning of the risk assessment role to the audit committee. The board of directors and its audit committee play an essential function in Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) by building up the right condition or tone-at-the-top. Given the board's responsibilities for representing the interests of shareholders, it plays a vital role in overseeing management's approach to ERM. This study examined the relationship between audit committee characteristics and risk management of some selected listed firms in a developing country like Nigeria. The study used secondary data to describe the dependent variable (financial risk decomposed into credit risk and liquidity risk) and the explanatory variables (decomposed into audit committee accounting expertise, audit committee meetings, audit committee independence and audit committee gender). The study used pair sample t-test, student t-test, Pearson Moment Correlation and random panel data estimator for twenty (20) selected listed firms for 2012-2016. Findings indicate that there is a negative between audit committee accounting expertise and financial risk. This revealed that Accounting Expertise in Audit Committees are likely to involve in activities and practices to curb financial risk. In addition, the Audit committee meeting indicates a negative relationship with credit risk. Audit committee gender and audit committee independence have a negative effect on liquidity risk. Therefore, this study recommends that Audit committees embrace Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) to manage risks effectively across the organization. Risk management processes should be one of the major points of discussion during audit committee meetings

DOES CEOs POWER MODERATE THE EFFECT OF AUDIT COMMITTEE OBJECTIVITY ON FINANCIAL REPORTING QUALITY IN THE NIGERIAN BANKING SECTOR?

This study empirically examined the impact of audit committee objectivity (contingent on CEO Power) on the quality of financial reporting in the Nigerian Banking Sector. The study adopted a survey research approach and secondary data extracted from financial statement. The OLS and LSDV analysis were used to investigate the impact of Audit Committee objectivity on the quality of financial reporting with or without CEO power and influence. The findings showed, that, while audit committee independence impact positively on the relevance and reliability of financial report, the same cannot be said when there was CEO power. CEO power in the audit committee mitigated the benefits of independence and caused its overall effects on financial reporting quality of no significant in terms of relevance and reliability. The study therefore recommended that having a majority of independent directors would increase the quality of board oversight, lessen the possibility of damaging conflicts of interest and helps to repose inventors’ confidence especially foreign investors that would invariably draft in FDI. This will align boards’ decisions with the interests of shareholders they represent. This will reduce significantly the ability of the CEO overbearing influence on the committee activities in ensuring financial reporting quality

The Impact of Trade Openness and Foreign Direct Investment on Economic Welfare in sub-Saharan Africa

The sub-Saharan African region is characterized by a high relative degree of openness to trade. The region is also identified with increased inflows of foreign investments with no significant welfare improvement. Economic development emphasizes that the lack of domestic investment in the developing economies could be boosted by trade openness and inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for impactful enhancement of capital formation. In this article, the impact of trade openness and foreign capital inflow on economic welfare was examined on a sub-regional analysis for sub-Saharan Africa. The study also appraised the effect of openness to trade and FDI inflow on the region's economic welfare. The data for 30 countries from 2000 to 2018 were collected and analyzed, with the Generalized Least Square (GLS) technique to fit the model developed. The study showed that openness to trade has a significant impact on economic welfare for all sub-Saharan Africa regions, while FDI is only significant for the Western sub-region. Hence, the study recommends that the government of the countries in the sub-Saharan Africa region should boost trade openness to enhance efficiency in productivity, and improve industrial development