Forensic Audit

Current and Potential Opportunities

De: Neeraj Vinu

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

The concept of forensic audit is closely related to investigation where the object of such an audit is to obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence regarding a potential fraud in the financial statements. An alleged fraud can be in the nature of fraudulent financial reporting or misappropriation of assets. Fraudulent financial reporting can be • Fictitious journal entries • Overstating estimates • Non-disclosure of facts Before we go in to what is Forensic audit, let’s look back into history to know the development of the concept of investigation leading to a wider concept of forensic audit. Prior to 2002, there was a fifth member among the big four. They were called the big five and the fifth player was Arthur Andersen, founded in 1913. You might have heard of the Enron scandal, a highly successful corporate that went bankrupt in 2001. Arthur Andersen was also held responsible for the collapse of Enron as they helped the management of Enron to hide the accumulated losses also destroying all the important books, documents and working papers during the last days of Enron. Arthur Andersen was held criminally liable and the firm was dissolved. The other partners of the firm who were not involved in the Enron Scandal formed a new entity Accenture, a name that students will be familiar with.