Accountants raise eyebrow

Some members of the accounting profession have raised an eyebrow over audit reports on firs by some auditing firms in the country.
The accountants who belong to the younger generation of the profession told The Republic that most of the reports are mere “ceremonial dressing” of the affected accounts.
One of them said that profit being declared by banks and some companies are unrealistic and does not reflect the reality of the existing economic situation in the country.
He opined that at economy where there is low demand for commodity, there are no new investment, industries and either producing below capacity or shut down, the tendency is that investors who borrow from banks will not be able to pay back such loans and their interest. The results will be lots of bad and doubtful debts.
This he said is not reflected in the annual audit report of these banks, instead you have fanatic profits. He said that since accounting is a historic thing banks may be falling on their retained profit to make the public believe they are doing well.
Another said that if profits are growing it shows the economy is on th path of recovery and signify economic expansion. These banks are not employing new hands, yet they want Nigeria to believe by their annual reports they are doing well.
Four other spoke along the same line of reasoning and concluded that audit reports in the country raise a lot of doubt on the credibility of auditing firms in the country and the accounting profession in general. The young accountants who have all qualified and have had 5 years experience pleaded anonymity for fear of sanctions from the lords of the profession. The accountants were sad that inspite of audit reports administrative panels still reveals lots of fraud and cover ups in companies on debt rescheduling they argued that it is like shifting a present burden to a future date. They said that when the rescheduled debts would mature the same problem of payment would arise. It is like postponing the evil days because past and present debts would at that time mounts and put further pressure on the economy.