Corporate Governance and Forensic Accounting in Fraud Examination

Dec 2019

Forensic accounting handles all the financial information which is liable to legal reviews. The information which is gathered, compiled include economic transactions, accounting systems, bills and payments, returns and payrolls, etc. A final report is developed based on these findings. All the accountants can undertake the responsibility but, because of increasing trends in the international market, the certified fraud examiners and forensic accountants are preferred over ordinary ones for the job.

Forensic accounting in future will help businesses manage transparent practices, which will result in an ethical marketplace. The number of fraudulent activities from within the organizations has reduced up to a significant level through strict valuations undertaken by forensic accountants.

There are few companies which haven’t had to face the menace of internal frauds. Considering this process inevitable, the corporations want efficient and effective ways with which they can wipe off corrupt individual striving inside their companies. With the help of forensic accounting, you can dig deep into financial information of a company and assist yourself in bringing out its malfunctioning faucets and resulting in subtly wiping off all the fraudulent individuals.

Forensic accounting experts can judge the spot from where the investigation should be started because they are trained professionals and with the help of a simple review of the company’s account details. The process of implementing intricate practices is easy for forensic accountants. Along with that, they can anticipate criminal activities within an organization, taking over traditional accountant processes.

When it comes to gathering information about frauds inside a company, the evidence gathered to data management, investigates techniques to operating electronic technologies, forensic accounting can work over a variety of fields:

Take on the insurance side of the fraudulent activities and find about the betrayals carried out by employees in this department
Investigate personal injury matters, thus saving the firm form wrong handling over a vast fortune to the injured worker
Specialize in fraud examination and find out about the fraud being carried out by people from within the enterprise

The skills and practice that is required to take on these activities are beyond ordinary. You must develop sharp intrapersonal and interpersonal skills to become a qualified forensic accountant.

Fraud Accounting in Fraud Examination

Fraud accountant deals with the report making, fact-finding, and connotational parts of the fraud examination. It is known that forensic accounting helps in analyzing situations and generating reports which are liable to legal reviews; the stories can form the basis of discussion in a court. Not only the basis of debate but forensic accounting also reports can be submitted as evidence and hence can help in dispute settlement as well.

Companies are mainly adopting forensic accounting as a preventive measure to save themselves from any possible fraudulent activities in the future. It can be understood as a risk management tactic helping businesses improve governance and lower the risks of internal frauds.

The Role of Fraud Examination in Companies

A centralized program is needed by the companies to establish a system for measuring and monitoring internal controls’ effectively. The alignment between corporate governance, external reporting activities, and internal control. Many governance officers and governance committees are set up to meet the demand for organizational integrity. In every area of corporate event, the governance committee must be active to ensure that the company is operating as a synergistic whole. A forensic accountant can make a significant offering in each of the following areas as a part of the governance committee:

1. Corporate Governance

A forensic accountant can help in formulating and establishing a comprehensive governance policy with strong background knowledge of the legal and institutional requirements of corporate governance. The complete governance policy is that it ensures a rough mix of both management and independent directors on the board which sets out the appropriate responsibilities of the boards and audit committees and has a fair allocation of power between owners, the board, and management. This ensures that there is a company code of ethics for management and employees. Ethical behavior is strengthened when top management shows, through its own actions, that questionable behavior will not be tolerated.

2. Preventing Fraud

The best way to check fraud is to establish an efficient control system that includes a good control environment determined by management’s philosophy of ethical behavior and strong corporate governance policies according to the understanding of forensic accountants. Forensic accounting is a superior accounting system that ensures reporting of all transactions, proper recording, and classification of all relevant transactions. It also comes along with healthy procedural controls that provide for appropriate authorizations, audit mechanisms, adequate documentation, and safeguarding of assets.

3. Fraud Investigations

The integrity of financial statements is ensured by a forensic accountant by actively investigating for fraud, areas of risk identified and associated fraud symptoms, pursuing each variation aggressively, and delivering into the micro details of accounting and financial anomalies.

A forensic accountant’s role can evolve into a critical component in the corporate governance system, helping companies prevent and detect fraud. The representation of the application of accounting principles, theory, and discipline encompasses branch of accounting knowledge in forensic accounting. Your company must be protected from any fraud. Along with that comes the legal processes while doing so. Being one of the best business and tax consultants in Dubai, JAXA takes care of the statements of clients which include accounting and deliver services timely, helping entities to identify frauds and deal with them accordingly. If your company is planning to initiate the same, do contact us - we’d be glad to assist.