Sunday, September 9, 2012

Responsibilities of a Forensic Accounting Expert

By Chloe Gib


The motive behind formation of any enterprise is profit making. In a bid to ensure that this is achieved, various measures are put in place to protect resources of the company from misuse and even embezzlement. These measures are called internal control systems. Since it is the responsibility of management to implement such systems, chances of conflict of interest are high thus the need to have experts within and without the firm to monitor their implementation. A forensic accounting expert is tasked with the duty of ensuring that a company operates freely without incidents of fraud and other financial irregularities. They therefore assist in discovering frauds in various organizations.

Internal accountants are the common whistle blowers in any organization. They therefore undertake various techniques aimed at discovering frauds in their organization. Upon discovery, such information is relayed to the relevant authority such as the board of directors and or police and the SEC.

The basic role of these experts is fraud detection, deterrence and prevention. They therefore put all necessary measures to ensure that any form of fraud is detected in its early stages. During their years of training, they learn how to be keen on detail to ensure that any slight evidence can be obtained. Due to their unique location in the organization, there is no form of fraud that can go unnoticed. They use the fraud triangle when executing their duties i.e. Opportunity, pressure and rationalization.

They are also the ones who help other accountants in these firms to set up internal control systems that are free from loopholes. This ensures that any override of controls is easily detected. These systems however require close monitoring to ensure implementation by all parties concerned.

Because of their skill, they are involved in training personnel in various companies on how to participate in detecting fraud. It therefore becomes the responsibility of everyone in these firms to ensure that resources are not misused. These experts encourage workers to report any suspicions to the experts so as to warrant an investigation.

Accounting expert witnesses are commonly required in court cases involving fraud and other financial irregularities. They therefore present objective and unbiased evidence before the court. This may be in favor of the defense or the prosecution.

It is also the duty of forensic accounting expert to device ways of unearthing frauds of any nature. They use software specially designed to analyze and detect irregularities in the audit trail. When hiring a forensic accountant San Francisco companies consider the track record of these professionals since some of these frauds are very complex to detect.




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