Creative Accounting and the Cross-Eyed Javelin Thrower

Creative accounting, as highlighted in the best selling books of Terry Smith and Ian Griffiths, was one of the key themes in corporate finance in the 1980s. The control of creative accounting has been a major issue of the 1990s. This book looks at the regulatory response to creative accounting and the role olf the Financial Reporting Review Panel, under Sir David Tweedie, in policing company accounts. The book is about the contest for the control of creative accounting, a contest in which Sir David Tweedie describes the Financial Reporting Review Panel as 'like a cross-eyed javelin thrower at the Olympic Games'. Foreword by Chris Swinson, President of the Institute of CharteredAccountants in England and Wales.

Acknowledgements.

Who's Who.

List of Abbreviations.

PART I: SETTING THE SCENE.

The Challenge.

The Response.

PART II: ENFORCEMENT.

Discovery and Detection.

Investigation and Action.

The Message is Medium.

A Risky Strategy.

PART III: ENFORCEABILITY: LOOKING FOR LOOPHOLES.

From Enforcement to Enforceability.

Find the Gap and the Ex-Files.

Out of Bounds.

Working to Rule.

Substance Abuse and Counter Strikes.

The Panel Strikes Back.

PART IV: ENFORCEABILITY: CHALLENGING THE REGULATORS.

Whose Substance is it Anyway?

Challenging Accounting Standards.

True and Fair: Override or Overridden?

PART V: LAW IN ACTION.

Law in the Courts: Or Why Lawyers Can't Give a StraightAnswer.

Winning Ways: From Technical to Tactical.

A Wider Lens.

PART VI: CONTROL?

Climate Control.

Cost-Benefit Control.

Battles, Wars and the Spirit of the Law.

Creative Control.

The Cross-Eyed Javelin Thrower.

Appendix 1: ASB Foreword to Accounting Standards.

Appendix 2: The Companies (Revision of Defective Accounts andReport) Regulations 1990 (SI 1990/2570).

Appendix 3: FRRP, Procedures for Handling Individual Cases.

Appendix 4: Financial Reporting Review Panel Record.

Appendix 5: Panel Press Notices -
Report.

Appendix 6: Panel Press Notices -
Analysis.

Bibliography.

Cases Index.

Company Index.

General Index.

Statutory Materials Index.

Subject Index.

"I would certainly put this book in the category of essential reading for anyone involved in preparing company accounts." (Accounting Technician, April 2001)

"This book's striking title is carried through into its structure and style, all evidently aimed at making it accessible to a wide readership of practitioners and not just stuffy academics. This is certainly a welcome change from the stodgy prose of most writing on financial regulation." (Journal of Law Society, September 2000)

Doreen McBarnet and Chris Whelan are the authors of Creative Accounting and the Cross-Eyed Javelin Thrower, published by Wiley.