IRMA-International.org: Creator of Knowledge
Information Resources Management Association
Advancing the Concepts & Practices of Information Resources Management in Modern Organizations

Principles-Based Accounting Standards: A Slippery Slope to Financial Reporting Fraud

Principles-Based Accounting Standards: A Slippery Slope to Financial Reporting Fraud
View Sample PDF
Author(s): Clement Chiahemba M. Ajekwe (Benue State University, Nigeria)
Copyright: 2023
Pages: 19
Source title: Concepts, Cases, and Regulations in Financial Fraud and Corruption
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Abdul Rafay (University of Management and Technology, Pakistan)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-5007-9.ch007

Purchase

View Principles-Based Accounting Standards: A Slippery Slope to Financial Reporting Fraud on the publisher's website for pricing and purchasing information.

Abstract

Principles-based accounting standards (PBS) are imbued with high levels of flexibility that enable any company to apply accounting policies that suit its unique circumstances. The use of PBS necessarily leaves much room for extensive use of the ‘ingredients or elements of accounting flexibility' including, estimates, multiple measurement types, and professional judgments to select accounting policies and make decisions around ‘materiality'. By invoking these flexibilities, entities can manipulate financial numbers and perpetuate improper acts that significantly impact the fairness of published general-purpose financial statements particularly the financial position and financial performance. This chapter concluded that while flexibility embedded in PBS is inevitable and necessary in financial reporting, its unintended consequence is to facilitate aggressive optimistic or pessimistic (as opposed to neutral) reporting practices. The flexibilities inherently pervasive in PBS can constitute the slippery slope through which fraudulent actions and reporting could be perpetuated.

Related Content

Vivek Bhardwaj, Bilal Ahmed, Mirza Shuja, Deepak Thakur, Tanya Gera, Mukesh Kumar. © 2026. 26 pages.
Vivek Bhardwaj, Tanima Thakur, Mrinalini Rana, Jeyaganesh Viswanathan. © 2026. 24 pages.
Abhishek Sharma, Abhishek Mishra, Shweta Jain, Khushboo Karodiya, Priyanka Sharma. © 2026. 10 pages.
Akash Mishra, Nandini Bansod, Dinesh Baban Kamble. © 2026. 18 pages.
Anjali Rawat, George Kurian, Romil Rawat, Janet Olivia Richmond, Anand Rajavat, Purvee Bhardwaj. © 2026. 28 pages.
Antonio Gonzalez-Torres. © 2026. 26 pages.
Anjali Rawat, A. Samson Arun Raj, Janet Olivia Richmond, Anand Rajavat, Antonio González-Torres, Purvee Bhardwaj. © 2026. 22 pages.
Body Bottom