Forensic Accounting: A Novel Paradigm and Relevant Knowledge in Fraud Detection and Prevention

ABSTRACT

Forensic accounting is a new trend that goes beyond normal audit approaches and procedures for fraud identification. The practice applies reliable principles and methods to obtain sufficient facts or data that provide basis for prosecution in the law court. Forensic accountants characteristically need adequate know-how and skills for investigation and proactive audit to control fraud. With globalization of the economy, fraudsters can be found in any organization. These criminals take advantage of loopholes such as suspicious financial statement, defective internal controls, and poor corporate governance. Hence, there is a great need for skilled forensic accountants to detect, prevent and expose the weak system. The professionals can exercise their mandate by reporting the obvious cases of fraud committed to a law court for prosecution.

KEYWORDS:

• Forensic accounting
• fraud detection
• fraud prevention
• skills

Acknowledgments

This paper was supported by a contribution from the Ghana Communication Technology University that actively and substantially reinforced the work in gathering and testing data which significantly affected this version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical statement

Ethical approval was necessary for this research work.