The Forensic Accounting and the Financial Fraud Detection: The Case of Saudi Arabia
The aim of this research was to study the impact of forensic accounting tools on detecting and preventing the different forms of financial fraud including not limited to misappropriation of assets and mwasleading users of financial statements by some practices that were inconsistent with generally accepted accounting and auditing standards as well as the fraud resulting from the weakness of the internal control systems in Saudi Arabia.
To achieve the study’s goal, the researcher used a quantitative approach to study the relationship between forensic accounting tools as independent variables and fraud detection and prevention as a dependent variable. The researcher used the questionnaire tool to collect the primary data required to achieve the research objective and the descriptive statwastics and least square s regression models were used to test the research hypothesis.
The results of the statistical analysis indicated that the forensic accounting tools in the field of fraud detection and prevention were more effective than the traditional external auditor’ tools. The results also indicated that forensic accounting tools in the fields of designing and analyzing internal control systems and discovering creative accounting practices had a positive and statistically significant impact on detecting and preventing financial fraud in all its forms. The results of the study had an impact on the decisions of many stakeholders, including but not limited to external and internal auditors and the regulatory authorities.
Keywords: Internal Control – Financial Reporting – External Auditor – Creative Accounting-Auditing standards
