- 20 Marks
Question
Toby Nigeria Limited is a publishing company established in the early 1970s. The company has recently been taken over by Superior Quality Limited – a multinational company operating in Europe.
Mr. Edet Akpan, a staff of Superior Quality Limited, has been sent from the company’s headquarters to review, among other things, the budgeting and reporting system used by Toby Nigeria Limited.
During his visit to all the departments, he discovered that monthly budgets are prepared for each department in the company. Upon request, the last budget statement for the School Stationery Production Department (SSP) for period V was presented to him.
The budget statement presented was as follows:
Budget statement for period V
Department: SSP Department

Mr Tola Ademola, the School Stationery Manager, revealed that the budget statement presented was based on 40,000 units with a standard labour content of 3 hours per unit.
Mr. Akpan observed that Tola was not in any way enthusiastic about the budget system. He saw it as a pressure system imposed by the company’s top management to indict some of the managers. He pointed out that the system was hurriedly introduced by High Flyer Consults, about twelve months ago. The consultant never took time to talk to the managers or provide explanation that
could assist users to understand the system. The experienced School Stationery Manager was doubtful about the competence of the consultant. He was of the
opinion that the system introduced in Toby Nigeria Limited was either a ready-made one developed for another company or that the consultant did not understand the system well enough to give him the needed confidence to educate the users. He concluded by stating that he was sure his department made a loss as
against the positive figure recorded in the report and there was the possibility of reporting a loss at another period when profit was actually made. The situation reported above cuts across virtually all the departments and so the need to nip the situation in the bud became very urgent.
The task of making budgeting system more useful and acceptable in a biased environment like this, no doubt, seems difficult therefore, Mr. Akpan has requested from you an advice that will assist him in getting out of the woods.
Required:
a. Redraft the budget statement in a more informative manner. (12 Marks)
b. Discuss the behavioral problems brought out in this situation. (4 Marks)
c. Discuss the steps Mr. Akpan should take to remedy the situation. (4 Marks)
Answer
TOBY NIGERIA LIMITED
(a) Budget statement for Period V
Department: SSP Department


(b) Behavioural problems in the situation
- The budgetary process here is not participatory.
- The approach applied here discouraged initiative and that was why users misunderstood the objective of the system.
- They saw the system as a penny-pinching control activity rather than a positive and beneficial one.
- The Budget system was imposed on users. This created resentment and negative reactions;
- Users did not understand the system and so system was unacceptable to them;
- The implementation of the budget resulted in the stifling of motivation;
- Users did not see the system as a neutral and objective one; and
- The goals of users were at variance with those of the organisation (goal incongruence).
(c) Mr. Akpan is advised to take the following steps:
- Call a meeting of all managers and heads of department where he will disabuse their minds on the acquired negative and contradictory attitude;
- Cancel the present system and initiate a new system that involves full participation of the budget holders;
- Communicate the objectives of the company and the usefulness of a budget system to all users. All the benefits derivable there from should be clearly and distinctly highlighted; and
- The new process of budget preparation and subsequent performance evaluation should be carried out in such a manner as to motivate managers and staff i.e. it should be participatory and should also encourage initiative and responsibility.
- Topic: Accounting Concepts, Transfer Pricing
- Series: MAR/JULY 2020
- Uploader: Cheoli