The persistent cases of corporate accounting scandals which have rocked the Nigerian banking sector in spite of auditor certification of financial statements as free from material error have raised concern not only on the effectiveness of audit committees but also on audit services despite the huge amount charged on their clients. Hence, this study examined the effect of audit committee effectiveness on audit fee of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria. Using an ex-post facto research design, the data sourced through the annual reports of twelve (12) banks for the period between 2012 and 2018 were analysed using random-effect regression analysis. The result of the study revealed that audit committee effectiveness proxy with audit committee audit committee expertise (t-value =3.22 & p-value = 0.000), audit committee diligence (t-value = 3.57, & p-value = 0.000) and audit committee gender diversity (t-value = 3.85 & p-value =0.000) has significant positive effect on audit fee of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria. This implies that an effective audit committee would demand for high audit quality service from the auditor, thereby increasing the audit efforts and time which subsequently result to higher audit fee. The study concluded that an effective audit committee would demand high audit service from the external auditor thereby ensuring that the financial statement published is relevant and of faithful representation.

Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) is a frequent nosocomial pathogen that causes severe diseases in many clinical and community settings. Strains of P. aeruginosa are associated with increased morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs. The rapid emergence of antimicrobial resistance among these strains is a public health crisis. Moreover, there is paucity of data on characterization of P. aeruginosa isolates from human clinical samples in Kwara State. Objectives: The objectives are to investigate the occurrence of metallo β-lactamase enzyme, multiple antibiotic resistant P. aeruginosa among clinical samples and detection of antibiotic resistance genes among them. Methods: Two hundred and thirty-five samples comprising of 145 males and 90 females human clinical specimens were collected aseptically from five selected health institutions within Kwara state, Nigeria. The samples were cultured immediately using standard microbiological procedures. Multiple drug resistance patterns of the micro-organisms to different antibiotics were determined using the Bauer Kirby disc diffusion technique. Metallo β-lactamase production was determined using E – test strip and the DNA samples of the multiple resistant P. aeruginosa strains were extracted and subjected to Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) for resistant genes determination. Data were subjected to descriptive statistics using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Results: A total of 145 isolates were identified for P. aeruginosa from the clinical samples .Thirty were positive for metallo β-lactamase production; 11 (8 %) males and 19 (13 %) females. Absolute resistance to ceftazidime (100 %), gentamicin (100 %), ceftriaxone (100 %) were observed while low resistance to ciprofloxacin (12.4 %), piperacillin (6.9 %) and imipenem (6.9 %). All isolates were sensitive to colistin. The prevalence of various encoding genes blaVIM, , blaCTX-M and blaTEM were 34.4 %, 46.7 %, 16.7 % and 37.7 % respectively. Conclusion: This study has shown that there is a high occurrence of metallo β-lactamase enzyme producing and antibioticresistant strains of P. aeruginosa in clinical specimens from the studied area. Necessary measures must therefore be implemented to stop the problems of this antibiotic resistance.

Tax fraud remains the greatest challenge to the government across the world, but the alarming rate at which it is being perpetrated in Nigeria is of concern to the government. The government has lost billions of naira as a result of this. The involvement of taxpayers in tax fraud depends on the level at which they perceive the institution of governance. Hence, this study examined the influence of interaction between institutional quality and taxpayers’ behaviors on tax fraud management in south-west Nigeria. The study employed a quantitative method to generate data from the total population of 504,263 respondents. The sample size consisted of 400 taxpayers (companies and businesses) registered with the Federal Inland Revenue Service in southwest Nigeria. The data were analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM). The interaction of institutional quality and taxpayer behaviors on tax fraud management was found to have a significant negative relationship (= -0.066, t = -1.763, p = 0.039, 0.05). According to this study, the sets of exogenous latent variables (i.e., institutional quality and taxpayer behaviors) explain 78% of the variance in tax fraud management. The study concluded that the working together of taxpayers’ perceptions of both low institutional quality and taxpayers’ behaviors has a significant influence on the tendency for taxpayers to engage in tax fraud management in south-west Nigeria. It was recommended that the better the morale of a taxpayer, the lower the tax fraud. Therefore, the government is advised to adopt policies and measures that can boost the taxpayers’ morality, which will in turn enable them to see tax fraud as a negative to their principled value system as law-abiding citizens. It is also recommended that tax authorities should be seen as taxpayers' friends by making their interactions with taxpayers less bureaucratic.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0261/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

The extent to which institutional pressures inform SMEs’ choice of accounting controls system seems unclear as considerable evidence in this line of thinking are only available for large firms and public sectors organizations. In view of the foregoing, the study investigated the extent to which institutional pressures (Regulatory,Association and provider of capital pressures)influence Small and Medium Manufacturing Enterprises (SMMEs) choice of accounting control mechanisms(diagnostic budget, interactive budget and comprehensive reward system). The study obtained quantitative data through self-administered questionnaire from randomly selected 262 managers of small and Medium Manufacturing Enterprises in Lagos State respectively. The obtained quantitative data were subjected to multiple regression analysis (Ordinary Least Squares). The findings of the study revealed that both institutional contingency (association and regulatory) influence the choice of accounting control mechanisms. Specifically, variation in diagnostic budget practice is explained by regulatory pressure(t-value=4.000 P-value< 0.01),Choice of interactive budget practice is also informed to a greater extent by both regulatory pressure and association pressure(t-value=2.896 P< 0.01) and (t-value=3.867, P-value < 0.01) while the choice of comprehensive reward system is driven by both regulatory and association pressure (t-value=3.233, P-value < 0.01) and (t-value=4.360, P< 0.01).Base on these findings, the study concludes that managers of Small and Medium Manufacturing Enterprises may use accounting control techniques as driven by association pressures and regulatory pressures not necessarily by the need to achieve goal congruence. Consequently, organization may unnecessarily incur avoidable cost on the use of accounting control for other purposes that are not goal –congruence.

This study investigated the impact of audit committee effectiveness on financial reporting timeliness in the Nigerian insurance industry. The study employed secondary data for the years 2012 - 2020. Hypotheses were tested using the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) method. The results revealed a significant relationship between timely financial reporting and audit committee size, expertise, and diligence. There was a negative but insignificant association between audit committee independence and financial reporting. The study concluded and recommended that audit committee effectiveness affects financial reporting timeliness in the insurance industry and that firms should increase the size and meeting frequency of the committee.