Taming creative accounting via international financial reporting standards: The Nigerian scenario

Creative accounting has remained a contentious issue, raising series of arguments in the accounting literature. These arguments are premised on twofold: positive creative accounting (ethical) and negative creative accounting (unethical). Positive creative accounting is grounded on ‘fair’ accounting practices while negative creative accounting is built on ‘inappropriate’ accounting practices that may be mendacious to users of accounting numbers. Creative accounting is a way of ethically assisting firms out of the compass of crashing out of business but rather it has been seen as an instrument of destruction. However, this paper examined international financial reporting standards (IFRSs) as a way of taming creative accounting as well as factors that trigger unethical accounting practices in Nigeria. The paper utilized structured questionnaires administered to 120 professionals (auditors, investors, stockbrokers). The Pearson Product Moment Correlation statistical tool was used in analyzing the field data. Based on the analysis, we found that IFRSs can be used to tame creative accounting. This implies that IFRSs moderate excessive unethical accounting practices. We found that one of the most significant factors triggering negative creative accounting is ‘conflict of interest’. On the basis of the findings, we recommended that ethical standards by the accounting profession should be properly aligned to suit the present business environment and sustained so as to checkmate excessive use of creative accounting. Also, IFRSs should be fully implemented by all corporate firms as well as more ethical standards that may guide management on creative accounting should be made available by regulatory framework of accounting so as to guide its use without it being detrimental to stakeholders.