Summary
of Findings
Through my review, I was able to
establish the extent of fraud and corruption in developing economics and was
also able to establish the impact of corrupt practices on the living conditions
of the citizens of these country using some selected population as a
representative to all the citizens of the country. The need for the services of
forensic accountant was also reported and its need in the third world
economics.
In addition to the above, some
empirical studies were done, where questionnaires were administered to capture
the perception of individuals in a selected company’s representing numerous
companies on the subject matter. The result of the survey was presented in a tabular
form and percentage computed so that initial assessment and analysis could be
done. They are presented as appendix to the work.
For the operational question 1
(table 4.01) in chapter 4, it gathers the opinion from sampled people that 81%
believes that forensic systems is not new in Nigeria while 19% says it is new
in Nigeria. In question 2 (table 4.02) 94% of respondents believes that there
is need for the services of a forensic accountant to be employed in their
organization while 6% have no idea on employing them or not. Question 3 (table
4.03) states that 94% of the respondents agreed that forensic accountants will
help or has helped in detecting and preventing fraud while 6% said that they
have no idea. In operational question 4 (table 4.04) and 5 (table 4.05)
respectively has its 62% respondents believe that forensic accountants are
analytically minded and inquisitive as people said and they also believe that
the money paid to forensic accountants worths the services they render while
22% says no to being analytically minded and inquisitiveness of forensic
accountants and 19% said no also the money being paid to forensic as its
equivalent to the services rendered. 16% and 19% respectively have n idea of
the questions asked.
In question 6( table 4.06), 94% of
the respondents in both sectors believes and are of the opinion that forensic
accountant is different from the traditional auditor while total of 6% said
that they have no idea of the question asked. (table 4.07) that was used to get
peoples opinion about question 7, states that 95% of respondents believes that
there is need for a forensic accountant to possess a sense of urgency and
commitment while 5% of the respondent have no idea. Also question 8 (table
4.08) explains that the use of forensic accountant in an audit investigation
will not increase the cost of the audit as supported by79% of the respondents
opinion is contrary to the 79% of the respondents and 7.9% f the respondents in
question 9 (table 4.09) are of the believe that the benefits of using forensic
accounting outweighs its cost while 14% said no and 7% have no idea.
The result of the respondents on
whether they believe that forensic accountants in Nigeria are up to a hard job
because of the high rate of dishonesty in the country and a forensic who is not
affected by the limitations of the audit process is in a better position to
discover fraud and thus bridge the expectation gap between the auditor and
investors shows that 95% and 90% in table 4.10 and 4.11 explaining question 10
and 11 respectively shows that they are in support of the sampled questions
while 5% and 10% respectively refuted it. In question 12 (table 4.12) 79% of
the total respondents are of the opinion that the knowledge of forensic
accounting by their accountants, auditors and senior staff will make some
positive impact on the nations fight against fraud and embezzlement while 15%
refuted it and 5% of the respondents have no idea and in table 4.13
representing question 13 states that 43% of the respondents heard about the
forensic accounting on internet while 8%, 22%, 16% 11% heard theirs on
Radio/TV, print media, textbooks/ journals
and have not heard respectively as shown in the table.
Testing of Hypothesis
Hypothesis
one (1) suggests that the null hypothesis should be accepted while it was to be
rejected as calculate- it shows that the calculated Z of 4.6036 is greater than
the critical Z of 1.96 thereby stating that there is no relationship between
forensic accounting and fraud detection and prevention in Emenite limited Enugu
and Nigerian bottling company Enugu coupled with the 79% of respondents that
refuted the question, we then say that there is a relationship between forensic
accounting and fraud detection and prevention in Emenite limited Emene and
Nigerian bottling company Enugu.
For hypothesis two (2), the
calculated Z is still greater than the critical Z which is 3.9686 > 2.1
respectively which accepted null hypothesis instead of the other way round,
though 75% of the respondents where against the null hypothesis and it is a
good significant figure. We therefore, holds that there is a relationship
between forensic accountant and analytical mind and inquisitiveness in fraud
detection and prevention n Emenite limited Enugu and Nigeria bottling company
Enugu.
Hypothesis three (3), the calculated
Z which is 6.1911 is greater than the critical Z which is 1.96 and it represent
that the null hypothesis was accept while in the normal sense it was to be
rejected and the respondents of the hypothesis shows that 89% opined that there
should be a relationship between forensic accountant and their services in
fraud detection and prevention in Emenite limited Enugu and Nigerian bottling
company which is significant and the result gotten may be out of sampling
error.
Hypothesis four (4), the calculated
Z which is 0.9525 is less than the critical Z which is 1.96, it still implies
that the null hypothesis should be rejected which states that there is no
relationship between forensic accountant and the need for their services in
Emenite Limited Emene Enugu and Nigerian bottling company Enugu and upholding
the alternative.
Finally, hypothesis five (5) reveals
that there is no relationship between forensic accounting and the negative view
about the cost benefit basis, the introduction of some forensic accounting
techniques in audit which is not capable of stemming the tide of financial
fraud and thus not cover the audit expectation gap in organization which was
gotten from the calculation that states that the calculated Z which is 4.9211
is greater than critical Z that is 1.96 thereby still upholding the null
hypothesis of which the respondents still showed the null hypothesis of which
the respondents still showed that the null should be accepted.
Conclusion
The place for forensic accounting
education in Nigeria cannot be over-emphasized and this is in view of the
ravaging nature of fraud on the economy of the private and public sectors in
Nigeria.
In summary, the study observed that fraud
and corrupt practices are common in developing countries –in private and public
sectors, especially in Nigeria and has created negative impact on our economy
entirely. We found out empirically that people are aware of forensic accounting
and are of the opinion that their services should be engaged in both private
and public sectors especially in Emenite Limited Emene Enugu and Nigerian
bottling company Enugu in Nigeria and their services are more required for
fraud detection and prevention and corruption related issues.
The test conducted above (51), shows
that the result for private and public sector which was examined in chapter
four (4) depicts that some wants the services of forensic accountants while
some are against it and some said nothing about. Based on the result of the
researchers result of his library study and other sources of materials and
empirical investigation he concludes as follows:-
1.
Forensic
accounting practice is neither new to the Nigerian private and public sectors
and to the developed nor is it in developing nations.
2.
That corruption
in private and public sectors in Nigeria, third world countries is alarming and
is not only crumbling their economy but also affecting innocent national’s
standard of living and their image
3.
That the services
of the experts (forensic accountants) are expected or required in our private
and public sectors and in our developing economy than in the developed
economics
4.
That Nigerian
universities should start offering forensic accounting courses in our undergraduate
and post-graduate level so as to enlighten more people on the importance of
forensic accounting investigation in our private and public sectors as it will
help in a long way in our countries fight against fraud, embezzlement and
corrupt related issues.
Recommendation
Following the above findings and conclusion, the
researcher therefore recommends that
1. Forensic accounting techniques should constitute an
aspect of the curriculum for the training of undergraduate and post graduate
accountants in Nigerian universities and make it to be a must study- especially
at post-graduate level, it should be encouraged that students should specialize
on the accounting techniques. Furthermore, the institute of chartered
accountants of Nigeria and other regulating bodies should include forensic
accounting in the curriculum of their professional examination. This is to
ensure that all hands is on deck to reduce, if not, to put an end to financial
frauds in our country.
2. The government should develop interest in forensic
accounting and accountants for monitoring and investigation of suspected and
confirmed corruption cases.
3. Practicing accountant should work towards
specialization and possibly establish firm for forensic accounting practice
only
There should be more public enlightenment on the
awareness of forensic accounting –its need and benefits via radio, television,
journal etc as that will make the junior staff in any organization and layman
to know the importance of forensic accounting investigation in our private and
public sectors.