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

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 institutionalized 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 institutionalization of corruption, through its pervasiveness at the social, economic and political level, is a premise for its institutionalization at the organizational 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 institutionalized practice—corruption—as opposed to the protection of the public interest.