An analysis of the emergence and growth of accountancy profession in developing economies: the case of Sudan 1956 - 2010
Creators: name: Ngrimwa, Peter
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 350199
subject: Accounting, auditing and accountability not elsewhere classified

description: This is an empirical investigation into the development of the accounting profession in the Republic of Sudan in the post-independence era (1956-2010) as a qualitative case study, taking into note the local accountancy association, the Sudan Council of Certified Accountants (SCCA) which was established in the late 1980s, as well as the Arab Society of Certified Accountants (ASCA) which was first established in 1984 as a non-profit professional accounting association in London, UK. The theoretical framework of this study is drawn from the sociology of the profession (SOP) including the state and the profession framework. Laughlin (1995) and Llewellyn’s (2003) methodological constructions on qualitative accounting research been employed in the study. This study uses a combination of archival, secondary, as well as in-depth interview data, the influence of state-profession symbiosis on the growth of the accounting profession in the Sudan. The most salient trend in the nearly six decades since Sudan gained political independence from her colonial master has been the persistent presence of the country’s military at the apex of the nation, virtually undermining and diminishing all traces of democratic practices, thus impacting on all political and professional institutions in the country, as well as emasculating the socio-cultural and economic facets of the lives of the ordinary Sudanese citizens - a setting that had fuelled the pervasive civil wars over the years and had steered Sudan to the subsequent partition of the former largest country in Africa into two independent states in 2011.<br><br>The study conceptualizes the process of state and the accountancy profession as a series of interactions between occupational associations and various social institutions, in relation to a particular set of conditions. In this perspective, the interactions involve negotiation, posturing, confrontation, conflict and conciliation; other social institutions include the State, corporations and higher education.<br><br>This study found that Sudan’s connection with Britain and the continuing British interests in the post-independence period have significantly impacted upon Sudan’s business, social, political and educational spheres. The British-based Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) is dominating in the accounting profession in the Sudan despite the existence of the country’s local accountancy associations. This study also found that albeit Sudan inherited its Anglo-Saxon accounting system from Britain, the presence of the ASCA and the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), the adoption of Islamic Shari’a by the Sudanese Parliament in 1983 as well as the Islamization of the country’s economy and the financial sector in 1992 through the Central Bank of Sudan (CBS), Ministry of Finance and National Economy (MoFNE), Ministry of Human Resources Development and Labour (MoHRDL) has created a unique feature (i.e Islamic perspective ) in the accounting profession when compared to former British colonies. The unique finding of accounting profession in Sudan is that while many former British colonies contested for localization of accounting based on their national ethos, interestingly, Sudanese accounting profession associated with religious path in developing the profession.