Academic literature on the topic 'Auditing, Internal. Fraud Embezzlement'

In recent years, the accounting profession has faced increased scrutiny because of scandals involving management fraud (e.g., Enron, WorldCom). In response, Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) #99 has expanded auditors' responsibility for detecting fraud, requiring auditors to gather significantly more information in their assessment of fraud. In addition, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) will focus on fraud detection through their inspections of registered accounting firms. In light of the increased emphasis on auditors' responsibility for detecting fraud, public accounting firms face the challenge of improving their fraud detection process, including their assessment of management fraud risk. Decision aids are one way for auditors to improve their assessment of management fraud risk. In fact, several studies from the decision aid literature suggest that aids are useful tools for a variety of tasks, including fraud risk assessment. At the same time, another stream of the decision aid reliance literature, which looks at people's willingness to rely on decision aids, suggests that individuals tend to be reluctant to accept the output given by an aid. Thus, the primary focus of this paper is on uncovering factors that would encourage one to voluntarily use and rely upon a decision aid. Toward that end, 132 senior-level auditors participated in an experiment that examined how several factors (confidence, perceived usefulness, client size, and conformity pressure) affect decision aid usage and reliance. The results show that perceived usefulness and decision aid reliance are significantly related. Further, the results suggest that perceived usefulness affects reliance more than variables examined in prior studies (e.g., confidence). Finally, the results suggest that decision aid usage mediates the relationship between perceived usefulness and reliance. The results of the current study have important implications for research in both the information systems and decision aid reliance areas. First, the study shows that perceived usefulness, a significant construct from the technology acceptance model (TAM) literature, is also a significant factor in determining decision aid usage and reliance. Second, the study further delineates how certain factors affect decision aid reliance.

The economic prosperity of the late 1990s was characterized by a perceived expansive growth that increased the expectations of a company's performance. WorldCom, a telecommunications company, was a victim of these expectations that led to the evolution of a fraud designed to deceive the public until the economic outlook improved. Through understanding what led to the fraud, how the fraud grew, and what its effects were, lessons can be derived to gain a better understanding of the reasons behind a fraud and to prevent future frauds from occurring or growing as big as the WorldCom fraud did.<br>ID: 030476472; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for honors in the major in Accounting.; Adviser: Pamela Roush.; Thesis (B.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-53).<br>B.S.B.A.<br>Bachelors<br>Business Administration<br>Accounting

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-04T11:45:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Weslley_Souza_do_Nascimento.pdf: 1033793 bytes, checksum: f3dd155a0470eac823e9fc0da1cab344 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2003-12-08<br>This dissertation aims at verifying the effectiveness of internal audit in the processes of detection of frauds committed against companies. The study of the subject fraud has become opportune nowadays, once many financial and accounting scandals have been discussed due to of the impact caused in the world financial market. The research begins by the study of how the audit profession appeared in the world, verifying the evolution of internal audit in Brazil and demonstrating data about the professionals belonging to this field in the mentioned country. Then, the concepts that involve the task of detecting frauds, which are internal control, fraud and its different types and error, besides the own concept of internal audit, are analyzed. The audit procedures help data analysis and guarantee the trustworthiness of the tests applied by the auditor, once technology helps them to go hand in hand with the computerization of the audit process. In order to corroborate the bibliographical survey a field work with the purpose of ratifying the conclusions found in the bibliography was made, thus, proving the formulated hypothesis. We researched private sector companies located in the state of S??o Paulo and considered big, based on the income tax criterion in Brazil.The answers to this research were tabulated and confirmed some conclusions in relation to the performance of internal audit in fraud atmosphere. The conclusions confirm that internal audit is effective in the detection of many types of frauds against companies, since the professionals make use of audit procedures together with the computer programs available in the market or developed by audit companies.<br>Esta disserta????o tem por objetivo principal a verifica????o da efic??cia da Auditoria Interna nos processos de descobertas de fraudes cometidas contra as empresas. O estudo do assunto fraude torna-se oportuno na atualidade uma vez que diversos esc??ndalos financeiros e cont??beis est??o sendo comentados, em face do impacto causado no mercado financeiro mundial. A pesquisa inicia-se com o estudo do surgimento da fun????o de auditoria no mundo, verificando-se a evolu????o da Auditoria Interna no Brasil e demonstrando-se dados acerca destes profissionais no pa??s. Em seguida, s??o analisados os conceitos que envolvem os trabalhos de detec????o de fraudes pela auditoria, os quais s??o: controle interno, fraude e seus diferentes tipos e erro, al??m do pr??prio conceito de Auditoria Interna. Os procedimentos de auditoria auxiliam a an??lise dos dados e garantem confiabilidade aos testes aplicados pelo auditor, uma vez que as tecnologias o ajudam a acompanhar a informatiza????o dos processos auditados. A fim de corroborar o trabalho bibliogr??fico foi elaborada uma pesquisa de campo com o prop??sito de ratificar as conclus??es encontradas na bibliografia, comprovando assim a hip??tese formulada. Foram pesquisadas empresas do setor privado, estabelecidas no estado de S??o Paulo e consideradas de grande porte com base no crit??rio de enquadramento do Imposto de Renda no Brasil. As respostas ?? pesquisa foram tabuladas e confirmaram algumas conclus??es em rela????o ?? atua????o da Auditoria Interna no ambiente de fraudes. As conclus??es apontam para a comprova????o de que a Auditoria Interna ?? eficaz nos trabalhos de detec????o dos diversos tipos de fraudes cometidos contra as empresas, desde que tais profissionais se utilizem dos procedimentos de auditoria aliados aos softwares dispon??veis no mercado ou desenvolvidos pelas empresas de auditoria.

Problem: Vilka åtgärder använder sig små företag inom kontantbranschen av för att förhindra och upptäcka bedrägerier? Hur ser företagen och revisorerna på ansvaret för att upptäcka bedrägerier utförda av anställda och skiljer sig företagens förväntningar från revisorns skyldigheter? Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur små företag arbetar för att förhindra och upptäcka bedrägerier. Syftet är även att studera om det finns ett förväntningsgap mellan företagsledningen och revisorerna gällande ansvaret att upptäcka interna bedrägerier utförda av personal.                                                                                             Metod: Denna rapport grundar sig på av en litteratur- och en empiristudie.  Empiristudien genomfördes med hjälp av totalt sju intervjuer, fyra med företag inom kontantbranschen samt tre revisorer. Även kompletteringsfrågor skickades till tre av respondenterna. Litteraturstudien består av böcker och artiklar som erhölls från databaser och biblioteket på Mälardalens högskola samt Västerås stadsbibliotek.   Slutsats: Intern kontrollsystemen är en av de viktigaste förebyggande åtgärderna mot bedrägeri. Samtliga företag i studien använder sig av någon form av kontroll för att upptäcka och förebygga bedrägerier utförda av anställda. Ofta används avstämningar av inköp, lager och försäljning samt rutiner för rättelser och returer, men den vanligaste kontrollen bland företagen utgjordes av företagsledarens aktiva roll i verksamheten. Företagsrespondenterna var överens om att det inte är revisorns skyldighet att upptäcka bedrägerier utförda av anställda, utan de ansåg att ansvaret att upptäcka dessa brott ligger på företaget. Denna studie visar att det inte finns ett förväntningsgap mellan företags- och revisorsrespondenterna angående ansvaret att upptäcka interna bedrägerier.<br>Research issue: What measures against fraud does small businesses in the cash  industry use to discover and prevent frauds? How do the businesses and the auditors look at the responsibility to discover frauds performed by employees and are there any differences between the businesses expectations and the auditors’ obligations? Purpose: The purpose with this thesis is to examine how small businesses are working to prevent and detect frauds. The purpose is also to examine if there is an expectation gap between managers and auditors regarding the responsibility to detect internal frauds preformed by employees. Method: One literature and one empirical study were made. The empirical data collection was carried out by means of seven interviews, four of them with companies within the cash industry and three of them with auditors. Complementary questions were sent to three of the respondents. The literature consists of books and articles. They were found in databases, the library at Mälardalen University and Västerås Municipal library.   Conclusion: Internal control systems are one of the most important preventive measures against fraud. The businesses in this study are using some kinds of controls to detect and prevent frauds performed by employees. Often tuning of purchase, storage and sales and routines for corrections and returns are used but the most common control among the businesses consisted of the managers’ active role in the operation. All the business respondents believe that it is not the auditors’ responsibility to detect fraud performed by employees but rather believed that the responsibility to detect these kinds of crimes lies with the company. This study shows that there is no existing expectation gap between the business respondents and the auditor respondents regarding the responsibility of detecting internal fraud.

This study uses the principal-agent framework to investigate the trade-off between the benefits of internal control stemming from a reduction of the losses from inappropriate employee actions and the cost of implementing it brought about by the possibility of collusion that it creates. It is shown that, when the agents find it relatively easy to collude, implementing internal control reduces agency welfare, defined as the sum of expected payments accruing to the principal and the agents, even as, with positive transaction costs of collusion, it improves productive efficiency, defined as the expected output. As a result, the principal, under certain conditions, finds it in her best interest to use internal control as a threat instead of implementing it. When this is the case, the principal sometimes prefers to decrease the accuracy of the accounting information system. The analysis of the agents' side contracting indicates that, even if the principal can prevent explicit collusion, for some values of parameters the possibility of tacit collusion still results in a loss. The study also investigates the effect of the choice of organizational form on the value of internal control. The analysis of two different versions of the model demonstrates that, for a wide range of parameters, creating a hierarchical structure reduces, albeit does not eliminate, the loss from collusion -- i.e., internal control and hierarchical delegation are complementary instruments of organizational design. It is also shown that, when one agent is ex ante more likely to be efficient than the other, in most cases the principal optimally appoints to the supervisory position the one who is less likely to be efficient. As a result, the supervisor, in expectation, exerts a lower effort level than the subordinate and collects higher salary.<br>text

The reporting of the financial results of an organisation is the responsibility of the management of that organisation. However, value may be added to the financial statements by the auditing of such financial statements and by the opinion expressed by the external auditors. Furthermore, there is the expectation on the part of the users of the financial statements that the auditors are also responsible for detecting fraud and, more specifically, financial statement fraud. It was stated in the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners 2010 Report to the Nations that it is the high-level perpetrators who cause the greatest damage to their organisations. The costs arising from financial statement fraud were found to be more than three times higher than the costs arising from fraud committed by lower-level managers and nine times more than the costs involved in employee fraud. The question, thus, arises as to why the auditors would not detect financial statement fraud timeously. The external audit profession has formulated a specific standard which addresses the responsibility of the external auditor as regards the detection of fraud during the audit of financial statements. The aim of this research was to determine the adequacy of the internal auditor standards as regards providing guidance to the internal auditors in terms of detecting financial statement fraud. This research highlighted the lack of guidance in the internal audit standards regarding the responsibility of internal auditors relating to financial statement fraud. In the main, both the directives and the guidance refer to fraud in general but not specifically to financial statement fraud and, thus, the professional internal auditor is forced to seek guidance outside of the internal audit standards as regards the detection of financial statement fraud.<br>MPhil University of Pretoria, 2014<br>Auditing<br>MPhil<br>Unrestricted

Text in English<br>Procurement fraud is an enormous problem and the South African news is perforated with reports of this illicit act. Procurement fraud occurs in all the phases of the procurement cycle, but this illicit act is mostly committed during the tender phase. Business does not see procurement fraud as a crime and therefor this crime is committed due to non-existent internal controls and processes to assess the adequacy of these controls. The purpose of the research was to highlight that procurement fraud occurs when internal controls are being bypassed or if an entity has an ineffective internal control system. The researcher studied the appraising of internal controls to understand the role it plays in detecting, preventing and investigating procurement fraud, specifically during the tender phase. The research design utilised was a qualitative research approach and an empirical design plan or strategy, to obtain the information. The researcher opted for this design to obtain information from literature and information from individuals in appraising internal controls. This ensured a comprehensive data gathering process. The goal of this research was to provide practical recommendations to assist investigators in private and public sectors with investigations into procurement fraud during a tender.<br>Police Practice<br>M. Tech. (Forensic Investigation)