Abstract:

The study was to determine the prevalence of creative accounting practice, motive, and techniques employed among Public Limited Companies in Nigeria. The data obtained from professional accountants in public practice was analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques. All the respondents admitted to having encountered the practice among their clients in the course of their work as auditors. Officials’ gains and quest to gain stock market advantage was found to be the most popular motives for creative accounting practices among public limited companies in Nigeria. Fraudulent stock valuation and depreciation policies are the techniques mostly applied by the companies for the manipulations. Majority, seventy-two percent (72%) of participants admitted that creative accounting is either “totally legal” or “legal” if perpetrators simply exploit the loopholes in the standards, without being fraudulent and is rife among quoted companies in Nigeria and thus need to strengthen institutions regulating accounting.