CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Cost accounting (CA), which measures and reports financial and non-financial information related to the organization’s acquisition or consumption of resources, has an exceptionally important position within the entire accounting information system of an organization because it provides information to both cost and management accounting and financial accounting as subsystems of the accounting information system. When its information is intended for the financial accounting it measures product costs in compliance with the strict legal and professional regulations. When its information is used for internal purposes it provides the basis for planning, control, and decision-making. Accounting data used for external reporting very often do not completely satisfy managers‟ needs for decision-making purposes. Attempts at slight modifications of financial accounting systems for managerial purposes rarely end happily and far from effective (Wikipedia, 2015). According to the Institute of Cost and management Accountants (IMA): “Cost and management accounting is a profession that involves partnering in cost and management decision making, devising planning and performance cost and management systems, and providing expertise in financial reporting and control to assist cost and management in the formulation and implementation of an organization’s strategy”.
The primary focus of economic planning and cost and management in Nigeria over the years has been the transformation of the economy through industrialization, however, desired results are yet to be obtained. The Nigerian economy is far from being fully industrialized and the manufacturing sector is yet to take a prominent place in the scheme of things (Ayodele&Falokun, 2003). The country has not been able to shift its export base, from crude oil and agriculture to manufactures. Up to date, on the average, the manufacturing sector’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) has been unimpressive ranging between 3 to 6 percent since the turn of the millennium. For instance, manufacturing contribution to GDP declined from about 6% in 2000 to 3.91% in 2006 and between 4.03% and 4.17% from 2007 to 2010 (National Bureau of Statistics 2011). The need to increase company level efficiency has been a dominant suggestion offered as the key to reversing this unimpressive performance. As Soderbom and Teal (2002) suggested, a key policy issue the Nigerian government should face is to understand and address the factors that will enable the efficiencies of companies and consequently their competitiveness to increase. Ayodele and Falokun (2003) also suggested the adoption of the combination of suitable cost and management techniques with suitable technology and other resources in addressing the low productivity of the sector.
Cost accounting and cost and management accounting has been suggested as one of such important cost and management techniques that can help ensure efficiency in the use of companies’ resources (IFAC, 1998).Traditionally, the main objective of the cost accounting and cost and management accounting systems has been toprovide information for costing products and for promoting efficiency in the use of labour andmaterials (Johnson & Kaplan, 1987). Such traditional method adopt practices and techniquessuch as standard costing and flexible budgeting for cost control, cost allocation and productcost measurements; incremental analysis for decision-making; measurement of profit,contribution and return on investments for performance monitoring; and the full integration ofinternal cost accumulation systems with the external financial reporting systems (Shillinglaw,1989). Company performance is the net result of the combined efforts of all individualsand groups in an organization (Khandwalla, 1977). Companies referred to in this study arethe manufacturing companies. The definition of company performance is problematic becauseit varies, depending on the viewpoint from which it is being assessed. For example, fromsociety’s viewpoint, performance may be assessed in terms of efficiency of production ofproducts or services needed by the society. From the owners’ viewpoint, profitability andgrowth rate in earnings may be the criteria, while employees may assess performance fromhow well employees are being treated. Customers may look at product quality, promptdelivery and competitive pricing. Since cost and management must take into account the variousexpectations of these groups in setting its goals, cost and management’s criteria for assessing companyperformance may be assumed to adequately reflect the concerns of others groups such as the society, employees, suppliers and customers (Khandwalla, 1977). However, the researcher is examining the effect of use of cost accounting and cost and management accounting as a tool for performance evaluation in manufacturing company.