The concept of forensic audit is defined as a type of audit that specializes in discovering, finding out, and attesting fraud and crime within a company. To carry it out, the participation of accountants, auditors, lawyers, among others, is required, whose main objective is to obtain financial, accounting, legal, administrative and tax information that will become evidence from the moment they are presented. before the court of law for the purpose of evidencing crimes such as: administrative corruption, accounting fraud, crime in insurance, money laundering and terrorism, among others (Cano & Castro, 2004).
Other authors define it as a tool to detect these crimes through the set of techniques and procedures applied by the forensic auditor and thus obtain sufficient, competent, relevant and useful evidence that can be presented and supported as evidence before a court or the entity that hires it, contributing effectively and efficiently to the solution of these problems and thus minimizing impunity and corruption in our country (Díaz Ortega & Pérez Peña, 2014).
According to Ocampo, Buriticá & Martinez (2010), the forensic auditor is a key piece to carry out the practice of the activity defined in the previous paragraph, therefore it is important to highlight certain characteristics that must be had, for example:
- Accounting knowledge base Strong audit knowledge Risk assessment and control Knowledge of the legal field in which you must work as a litigator
On the other hand, to carry out a forensic audit it is important to plan a general process for its development, for this the auditor uses his professional judgment which will take into account certain aspects such as relative importance, probable risk and obtaining a clearer picture of which part of the company is more vulnerable to being a victim of fraud (Ramírez & Bohorquez, 2014).
Inquiring about the subject, the forensic field has evolved and it does so faster and faster with regard to the topic of economic crimes, however, over the years it has not been possible to find the most appropriate way to understand the accounting field within From the previous context, there are different points of view between authors and professionals who identify this field as three different names: forensic accounting, forensic auditing and forensic accounting. For the purposes of this theoretical framework, it will be named as a forensic audit.
Even though the forensic audit has not been disseminated, there are different authors who have wanted to delve into it, but there are endless interpretations that are given to the forensic audit and which may or may not be far from what it really means. However, most authors agree that it is an activity in which there is more participation by accountants, in addition to being a tool for accounting within which it may have a different field to act in those countries vulnerable to crimes of white collar in which the high level of corruption stands out (Ramírez & Piedrahita, 2011).
In addition to this, most of the studies that have been done on the elements that cause fraud in the financial statements, it has been detected that most of these are given by those who certify or dictate the financial statements. In order for these types of risks, to which most companies are exposed, to be mitigated, it is important that controls and monitoring be established within companies regarding the causes of these types of risks (Ramírez, Sanandrés & Ramírez, 2018).
Currently this discipline is closely linked to technology since there is the application of accounting systems, the role of the internet and social networks as means to report fraud (Vivas, 2009).
References
- Cano, M., & Castro, R. (2004). Forensic audit. Colombia, ECOE EDICIONES. - Díaz Ortega, SM, & Pérez Peña, P. (2014). The forensic audit: methodology and tools applied in the detection of economic crimes in the business sector of the city of Cartagena (Doctoral dissertation, University of Cartagena).Ocampo, CA, Buriticá, OIT, & Martinez, GRS (2010). Forensic techniques and auditing. Scientia Et Technica, 16 (45), 108-113, Ramírez, AEL, & Piedrahita, VS (2011). Forensic audit: a potential field. Adversia, (8), 55-66, Ramírez Casco, ADP, Sanandrés Álvarez, LG, & Ramírez Garrido, RG (2018). Forensic audit a fraud prevention tool. Observatory of the Latin American Economy, (November). Ramírez, M., & Bohorquez, BJR (2014).Methodology and development of forensic audit in detecting accounting fraud in Colombia. Cuadernos de Administración, 29 (50), 186-195.Vivas, Á. F. (2009). Forensic Audit applied to technology. Adversia, (5), 15-30.
