The role of accounting and accountants in the oil subsidy corruption scandal in Nigeria

Zayyad Abdul-Baki, Ahmad B. Uthman and Abubakar S. Kasum

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, 2021, vol. 78, issue C

Abstract: Accounting firms have long been profit-orientated ventures, and their pursuit of profits has overshadowed the protection of the public interest they avow. This study investigates how corruption, as an institutionalised practice in Nigeria, has led two accounting firms to support and engage in corruption rather than guard against it in an oil subsidy corruption scandal in Nigeria. Adopting Dillard, Rigsby, and Goodman’s (2004) model of institutional theory, the study argues that the institutionalisation of corruption, through its pervasiveness at the social, economic and political level, is a premise for its institutionalisation at the organisational field level (the oil subsidy scheme). Because the two accounting firms were both involved in the operation of the oil subsidy scheme, their practices were essentially forced to conform to the institutionalised practice—corruption—as opposed to the protection of the public interest.

Keywords: Corruption; Institutionalised practices; Accountants; Accounting firms; Nigeria; Oil subsidy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:78:y:2021:i:c:s1045235419301078

DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2019.102128

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