Forensic Accounting and Fraud Detection

Question: Discuss about the Forensic Accounting and Fraud Detection. Answer: Introduction Incidences of fraud have been observed in the private companies and the government institutions in the past few years. Following the matter, many businesses are becoming more protective of their enterprises through engaging in investigations and analysis of their economic cycles with an aim of eliminating the chances for committing an economic fraud. The change in the curriculum is said to be as a result of the gat that exists between education and the skills needed in the market. Today, the services of forensic accounting are seen to be in high demand and many business operations and operators have acknowledged the importance of the profession. This research is mainly to focus on the forensic accounting skills that graduates will need to be able to fill in the forensic accounting sector and have a place in the accounting market. The research will be focusing mainly on answering the questions; How effective can forensic accounting be in the prevention of economic fraud? Can the use of external auditors be a tool in the detection and prevention of economic fraud? Referring to the conventional accounting tools, is forensic accounting better? Objectives The major objectives of the study would be to; Determine the application of forensic accounting in business organizations Defining the recommendations on the steps to developing the forensic accounting practice. Evaluate the roles of forensic accounting in the process of deterring fraud. Literature Review The highly increasing rates of complex businesses have been accompanied a rise in fraud cases that calls for investigations in the accounting departments of the affected companies. thus, forensic accounting Has been used frequently in such cases as a tool of fraud detection in the investigations. According to Maurice (1994), the globalization of many businesses saw the auditors shifting from the fraud detection to reporting financial statements. As such, there was a gap created between the auditors and the people using the financial statements reporting and were still considering the auditors as their defense against fraud (Imonian, Antunes Formigoni, 2013). Thornhill (1995) stated in his works that forensic accounting referred to the people using their financial skills in conjunction with their investigative experience to attend to the fraud issues within the rules that are inbound to the evidence. Further, he highlighted that the exercise included the financial experience on fraud cases and the understanding of the business and the insights on the legal system. Anwar and Uddin (2008) mentioned in their works that forensic accounting uses the understanding of the business information and the reporting systems and other tools in the department to gather perform their work. The researches indicate that there have never been fraud detection services in Australia in the past despite the fact that fraud incidences have been there since decades ago (Efiong, 2012). Today, the services of forensic accounting are seen to be in high demand and many business operations and operators have acknowledged the importance of the profession. As of today, many employees prefer employing accounting graduates with forensic accounting skills. In the field of accounting, the knowledge in forensic accounting has become an additional advantage as the job market today requires one to have ideas in forensic to be employed in the accounting departments (Othman et al., 2015). Conceptual Framework The introduction of forensic accounting in the modern accounting concepts has been seen to be associated with a lot of beneficial advantages. There are certain steps in the context that can allow the accounting personnel to deal with the financial crimes extensively. The figure below is a contextual framework that can be used in cases of the financial crimes and the accounting departments (Pedneault et al., 2012). Management of Data and Ethical responsibilities In the research, ethics is the main aspect that is held with a lot of weight. The researcher in the project will be obliged to protect the entire confidential communications that will be obtained from the participants (Sekaran Bougie, 2013). In the project, the research is to be conducted with a lot of care that will ensure no errors and made and that the conclusions met would have been drawn from the data analysis process without the influence of the researchers point of view. Also, all the sources of information that would have been used, including their authors are to be acknowledged in the entire paper (Rezaee Suen, 2016). Considering that today many graduates possess forensic accounting skills, which can be used in fraud detection, they are expected to be ethical in the services they offer. As much as they detect and eliminate fraud incidences, they are expected not to take advantage and involve in fraud and eliminate evidences. References Efiong, E. J. (2012). Forensic accounting education: An exploration of level of awareness in developing economies-Nigeria as a case study.International Journal of business and management,7(4), 26. Imoniana, J. O., Antunes, M. T. P., Formigoni, H. (2013). The forensic accounting and corporate fraud.JISTEM-Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management,10(1), 119-144 Othman, R., Aris, N. A., Mardziyah, A., Zainan, N., Amin, N. M. (2015). Fraud Detection and Prevention Methods in the Malaysian Public Sector: Accountants and Internal Auditors Perceptions.Procedia Economics and Finance,28, 59-67 Pedneault, S., Silverstone, H., Rudewicz, F., Sheetz, M. (2012).Forensic accounting and fraud investigation for non-experts. John Wiley Sons. Rezaee, Z., Lo, D., Ha, M., Suen, A. (2016). Forensic Accounting Education and Practice: Insights From China.Journal of Forensic Investigative Accounting,8(1). Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R. (2013).Research Methods for Business - A Skill Building Approach(6th ). Wiley.