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Audit's Final Paper - Forensic Accounting
Audit's Final Paper - Forensic Accounting
Audit's Final Paper - Forensic Accounting
ARRANGE BY :
IN GUIDANCE OF :
Accounting Department
Faculty of Economic Andalas University
Padang, West Sumatra
2019
Preliminaries
a. Title Page
Forensic Accounting Practices and Fraud Prevention Ability in Indonesia
b. Abstract
This paper will mainly talk about forensic accounting and it’s fraud prevention ability in
Indonesia. Including the definition, characteristic, and the forensic accounting practices in
Indonesia due to it’s ability to prevent fraud in Indonesia. Talking about fraud in Indonesia –
let’s say corruption – is an important word in forensic accounting. As many corruption cases are
uncover nowadays, the demand of forensic accountant is high. Yet, is it true that forensic
accounting have an important role to prevent fraud cases in Indonesia?. Forensic accounting in
this paper will later be judged whether it can enhance the fraud prevention level in Indonesia or
not through explanation of each point. The data is collected from several journals and books
related to the topic. The results show that Forensic accounting can prevent fraud occurrence in
Indonesia. This paper will provide the reason of the result – it is obtain by conclude the forensic
accounting practices in Indonesia and it’s impact to the level of Indonesia’s corruption Index.
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TABLE OF CONTENT
Preliminaries..................................................................................................................................ii
a. Title Page.............................................................................................................................................ii
b. Abstract...............................................................................................................................................ii
Contents..........................................................................................................................................1
a. Introduction.........................................................................................................................................1
b. The Study.............................................................................................................................................2
1. Definition of Forensic Accounting....................................................................................................2
2. The Purpose of Forensic Accounting................................................................................................3
3. Types and Parts of Forensic Accounting.........................................................................................3
4. Skills and Characteristics of Forensic Accountant............................................................................4
5. Fraud................................................................................................................................................6
6. Forensic Accounting in Indonesia....................................................................................................6
7. Forensic Accounting and Investigative Audit – the relationship......................................................7
8. Investigative Audit Mechanism........................................................................................................7
9. Fraud Prevention Ability of Forensic Accounting and or Investigative Audit...................................9
10. Corruption Perception Index of Indonesia...................................................................................11
c. Conclusion..........................................................................................................................................11
Reference Materials.....................................................................................................................13
Appendix...............................................................................................................................................13
References.............................................................................................................................................14
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Contents
a. Introduction
In October 1997, Indonesia had requested funding from the IMF and the World Bank to
request loans. As assistance, the IMF and the World Bank need an Agreed Upon Due Diligence
Process (ADDP) that is carried out by foreign accountants assisted by several Indonesian
accountants. This ADDP finding is very surprising because the sample of the Big Banks in
Indonesia shows that our banks are overestimating assets by 28% -75% and underestimating
liabilities by 3% -33%. This finding immediately made the market and the government led to the
liquidation of 16 private banks. The liquidation then turned into a bad move because it caused
the existence of large funds (Rush) savings and deposits in private banks because of the
destruction of public confidence in the banking books. This ADDP is none other than the
application of forensic accounting or investigative auditing (“Akuntansi Forensik”, 2014).
The case above is one of the beginning history of forensic accounting in Indonesia. Forensic
accountant here acts as the party evaluating the existence of fraud in banking. While, fraud is any
misstatement of financial report. This case also being the point where forensic accounting seen
as an important role to handle similar cases.
Based on the cases above, we can understand that accounting forensic is important especially
in discovering fraud practiced in the firms. Afterwards, let’s think about, is the forensic
accounting has the same effective as discovering fraud, in preventing fraud in Indonesia?. In this
paper, we will talk first about what is forensic accounting followed by characteristic and forensic
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accounting practices in Indonesia. After that, we will see the impact of implementation of
forensic accounting in Indonesia, including the essence where we can see whether the forensic
accounting can prevent fraud in Indonesia.
Later on, this paper will start the study by define the forensic accounting followed by its
purposed, then we will discuss about types and parts of forensic accounting followed by skills
and characteristics required of forensic accountant. Afterwards, this paper will tell us the brief
explanation about fraud. The continue section of this paper will tell us about the implementation
of forensic accounting in Indonesia, including the way it is investigate (being audited), and the
explanation about whether forensic accounting is able to prevent fraud in Indonesia or not.
b. The Study
In the introduction section before, already stated that forensic accounting defined by D.
Larry Crumbley as a suitable accounting to law purposes. While Theodorus M. Tuanakotta
said that forensic accounting is the application of an accounting system in the legal field,
especially on fraud or fraud issues. Another definition is by Jack Bologna, which stated that
forensic accounting can be interpreted as accounting relating to the court or regarding the
application of scientific knowledge of accounting to legal purposes. More, Cali on Forensic
Accounting Investigation define the forensic accounting as the use of intelligence-gathering
techniques and accounting/business skills to develop information and opinion for use by
attorneys involved in civil litigation and/or criminal proceedings and give trial testimony if
called upon; the action of identifying, recording, settling, extracting, sorting, reporting, and
verifying past financial data or other accounting activities for settling current of prospective
legal disputes or using such past financial data for projecting future financial data to settle
legal disputes. (“Akuntansi Forensik”, 2014; Cali, 2013; Sukesih, 2012; Sayyid, 2014).
Based on several definition from the experties above, it can be concluded that forensic
accounting is the use of accounting expertise combined with the ability of investigation to
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solve a problem or suspected fraud. Forensic accounting is basically a combination of
accounting and law. Both disciplines complement each other. Therefore, forensic accounting
can be interpreted as the use of accounting for legal purposes.
Forensic accounting aims to translate complex financial transactions from data, numbers
into a form that can be understood in general. As well as understanding what is behind the
financial statements. Of course, this is intended so that everything can be detected early, so
that it can be immediately known that there is something wrong in the financial data presented
(Sayyid, 2014).
a) FOSA or Fraud Oriented audit system, is a forensic accounting that handles fraud issues in
2 focus studies, namely illegal asset withdrawal in the form of Skimming, Lapping Kitting,
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and Fraudulent financial statements in the form of misstatements material and false financial
data. Thus to identify fraud in general, FOSA is used.
b) COSA or Corruption Oriented audit system is forensic accounting that deals with fraud in
the focus of the study, namely Corruption. Therefore, COSA is used to specifically identify
fraud, namely corruption.
In doing their job, forensic accountant is divide into two parts determined by the types of
service, based on Sukesih (2012). The first type of service is investigative services, which
directs fraud examiners or fraud auditors. Where they master the knowledge of accounting to
detect, prevent, and control fraud, and misinterpretation. The second type of service is
litigation services by which represents the testimony of a fraud examiner and forensic
accounting services offered to solve valuation issues, such as those experienced in divorce
cases.
2. Investigative knowledge and skills, such as surveillance tactics and interview and
interrogation skills, help forensic accountants to step outside their skills in auditing forensic
aspects both legal and financial aspects.
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5. Knowledge of legal and court procedures, makes it easy for forensic accountants to
identify the types of evidence needed to meet the legal standards of the jurisdiction in which
cases will be assessed and safeguard evidence through ways that meet court criteria.
6. Knowledge and skills in the field of information technology (IT), is an important tool for
forensic accountants in a world surround by cybercrimes.
7. Communication skills are also needed by forensic accountants to ensure that the results
of their investigations and analyzes can be understood correctly and clearly by their service
users.
After defining the skills required for forensic accountant that is refer to Hopwood, Leiner
and Young (in Sukesih, 2008), we understand that forensic accountant is someone that can
detect, investigate, and represent the fraud examiner in the court. In doing so, a forensic
accountant need to have specified manner or characteristics in order to implement their skills
and do the job effectively. As it will explain in the next paragraph.
David, Farell, and Ogibly (in Prabowo, 2016) has stated several characteristics that must be
owned by a forensic accountant as follows :
Detail oriented and audit skill is the most important character and skill for a forensic
accountant, based on research conduct by Prabowo (2017) on several universities in Jakarta.
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5. Fraud
Fraud can be defined as a variety of ways that used by human ingenuity, which is someone
in order to obtain benefit from others through improper actions. Fraud is intentional acts,
generally in the form of lies, plagiarism and theft. Cheating is done to obtain benefits in the
form of money and wealth, or to avoid payment or loss of services, avoiding taxes and
securing personal or business interests (Sayyid, 2014).
Fraud begins with the plans of the fraudster that leading up to committing of the fraud act.
Once it happen, the fraudster converts the asset to cash, if necessary, and conceals the fraud
(Singleton, 2010).
In Indonesia, regarding to the ACFE survey, fraud cases is dominate by corruption,
following the misappropriation of national asset, and the smallest percentage of fraud cases in
Indonesia is on financial statement fraud (Kennedy and Siregar, 2017).
Another case in 2006, the Financial Transaction Analysis and Analysis Center (PPATK)
was able to prove to the court that Adrian Waworuntu was involved in embezzlement of BNI
L/C worth Rp 1.3 Trillion, using the follow the money method which is similar to the PwC
method in a bank case Bali, in another case using the same method, the PPTK also succeeded
in revealing a number of "odd" transactions of 15 police officers who have billions of rupiah
account balances, even though their income did not produce this fantastic figure (Sayyid,
2014; Sukesih, 2012).
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Nowadays, every year the KPK conducts an integrity survey. This survey is the authority of
the KPK in implementing coordination and supervision tasks. The KPK has the authority to
conduct surveillance, research, or study of agencies that carry out public services. The
integrity index issued by the KPK is not solely based on perception. The purpose of this
survey based on Nurzaman (n.d.), is as follows.
Forensic accounting was carried out by various institutions not only by the Corruption
Eradication Commission (KPK), but also by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), the Financial
Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), The Financial and Development
Supervisory Agency (BPKP), the World Bank (for its loan projects), and public accounting
firms (KAP) in Indonesia (Sayyid, 2014).
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from various sources to identify indications of fraud and crime. Furthermore, various data and
information are analyzed in accordance with the objectives of the investigative audit to be
carried out.
2. Developing a crime hypothesis and planning an audit, including:
• Analyze the company's product development in the market, compare with similar
companies, loss analysis because of what?
• Get information about who is authorized / authorizes significant outgoing money, etc.
• After completing the audit, the Head of the Audit Team prepares an investigative audit
report, which is prepared by taking into account the provisions in preparing the investigative
audit report as follows:
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1. Accurate in the sense that all report material for example concerns fraud or crime that
occurred as well as other important information,
2. Clear in the sense that the report must be submitted systematically and every information
submitted has a logical relationship.
3. Balanced in the sense that the report does not contain bias or prejudice from the auditor
compiling the report or other parties that can influence the auditor. The report only contains
facts and does not contain the auditor's personal opinion or opinion
4. Relevant in the sense that the report only reveals information that is directly related to
the fraud or crime that occurred;
5. Be punctual in the sense that the report must be compiled as soon as the fieldwork is
completed and immediately delivered to the parties concerned.
This section will discuss about how a forensic accounting has fraud prevention ability,
referring to the research or paper conduct by expert. The paragraph below is based on Bhasin
(2016).
Corporate Governance: is the first thing that can be consider as an effect to the organization
if implement the forensic accounting comprehensively. It is because with a strong background
knowledge of the legal and institutional requirements of corporate governance, forensic
accountants can help to formulate and establish a comprehensive governance policy that
ensures an appropriate mix of management and independent directors on the board, sets out
the appropriate responsibilities of the board and the audit committees, has a fair allocation of
power between owners, management, and the board, and ensures there is a company code of
ethics for employees and management. Ethical behavior is also will reinforced when
management shows, through its actions, that questionable behavior will not be tolerated.
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Efficient Control System: Forensic accountants understand that the best way to prevent
fraud is to establish an efficient control system that encompasses: a good control environment
determined by management‘s philosophy of ethical behavior and strong corporate governance
policies, a superior accounting system that ensures the proper recording, classification, and
reporting of all relevant transactions, and strong procedural controls that provide for
safeguarding of assets, proper authorizations, audit mechanisms, and proper documentation.
Vigilant Oversight: means that any system needs to be constantly monitored and evaluated
to make sure that it is functioning well. Indeed, Forensic Accountant can monitor not only
compliance at the top levels of corporate power, but also management procedures and
employee activity. Information gathered as a result of the monitoring can be used to readjust
and reformulate governance, ethics, and control policies.
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Fraud Investigations: Forensic accountants can ensure the integrity of financial statements
by actively investigating for fraud, identifying areas of risk and associated fraud symptoms,
pursuing each anomaly aggressively, and delving into (digging up) the minute‘s details of
accounting and financial anomalies. By helping companies to prevent and detect fraud,
therefore, the forensic accountant‘s role can easily evolve into a key component in the
corporate governance system.
From the explanation about how forensic accounting can has ability to prevent fraud above,
we can conclude that forensic accounting can prevent fraud through arrange comprehensive
governance policy, involve controlling, establish effective communication and positive work
environment, monitoring, and establish consequences. At the end, management have to be
ready for investigation held by forensic accountant, called investigation audit.
Corruption perception index (CPI) issued by Transparency International shows that there
have been significant improvements during the period 1998 - 2017 in which Indonesia's CPI
score increased from 20 to 37 (out of 100) . This means that Indonesia has taken steps to
become a country conducive to fighting corruption. Public perceptions of corruption
eradication in Indonesia have also shown a trend of improvement, in part due to the
breakthrough of the Corruption Eradication Commission which is aggressively chasing
corruptors (Sukesih, 2012). (See appendix).
c. Conclusion
Forensic accounting is the use of accounting expertise combined with the ability of
investigation to solve a problem or suspected fraud aims to translate complex financial
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transactions intended to detect any misstatement early, so that it can be immediately known that
there is something wrong in the financial data presented.
Detail oriented and audit skill is the most important character and skill for a forensic
accountant, that is usefull for conducting forensic accounting activity, as well as conduct by
several institution in Indonesia as evidences for the forensic accounting implementation in
Indonesia such as Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Supreme Audit Agency (BPK),
the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), The Financial and
Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP), the World Bank (for its loan projects), and public
accounting firms (CPA firm) in Indonesia.
At the end, we can say that forensic accounting can prevent fraud in Indonesia through its
activity such as; arrange comprehensive governance policy, involve controlling, establish
effective communication and positive work environment, monitoring, and establish
consequences. At the end, management have to be ready for investigation held by forensic
accountant, called investigation audit. Also, its proved by the number of CPI index of Indonesia.
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Reference Materials
Appendix
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References
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305617878
Fitriyah, K.F., & Sidharta, A.E. (2013). Forensic accounting and fraud prevention in Indonesia
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312595570
Sayyid, A. (2014). Pemeriksaan fraud dalam akuntansi forensik dan audit investigatif. Fakultas
http://www.jurnal.uin-antasari.ac.id
Kennedy, J.S.P., & Siregar, L.S. (2017). Para pelaku fraud di indonesia menurut survei fraud
Nurzaman, A.T. (n.d.). Akuntansi forensic dan audit investigatif. Retrieved from
https://www.academia.edu/33846079/Resume_Akuntansi_Forensik_Dan_Audit_Investigatif
Singleton, W.T., Singleton, J.A. (2010). Fraud auditing and forensic accounting. Retrieved from
https://books.google.co.id/books?
hl=id&lr=&id=xg5MDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP11&dq=forensic+accounting&ots=RLBYh2vZqP&sig=q
9NRU0wIm0JJ467wPovCxY2y8sA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=true
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Prabowo, Y.H. (2013, November 4). Forensic accounting, anyone?. The Jakarta Post. Retrieved
from https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/11/04/forensic-accounting-anyone.html
https://imagama.feb.ugm.ac.id/2014/03/19/akuntansi-forensik/
Herlambang. (2011, November 22). Pengertian audit investigasi. Masherla. Retrieved from
https://masherla.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/pengertian-audit-investigasi/
Retrieved from
https://www.academia.edu/13122947/AKUNTANSI_FORENSIK_DI_INDONESIA
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