The Role of Forensic Accounting in Reducing Financial Corruption: A Study in Iraq

Abstract

Since forensic accounting arose in America, it has become a very important issue by the researchers and scholars in several countries in the whole world. Financial corruption is the most dangerous factor on the present and future of Iraq. Perhaps it's no less dangerous than the terrorist operations accompanied the Iraqi political change started in 2003. Thus, such corruption slows down the economic development process and prevents the welfare and the prosperity of the community, which may lead to lose confidence in both the political class and state institutions.While this corruption requires sophisticated ways to fathom, there is a modern method, among others, that could be used for this purpose which is the forensic accounting. This study therefore attempts to determine the impact of using forensic accounting on financial corruption. It contributes to the limited existing literature on the forensic accounting where no previous study has been down in Iraq dealing with such a serious issue. Specifically there is a failure of accounting and control methods that lies in the methodology taught in Iraqi universities to discover financial corruption cases. This study adopted a correlation research design. Data was collected by using interviews and questionnaires. The main findings of the study revealed that there is a significant relationship between the forensic accounting methods and effectiveness of the control and auditing bodies to detect financial corruption cases.On the other hand, the majority of the audit and accounting personnel in Iraq are suffering from poor perception and information of the forensic accounting methods. Therefore, a suggestion was made by the current study that forensic accounting methods should add to the curricula of accounting departments in Iraqi universities at both levels of preliminary and higher studies through theoretical and practical classes.

Forensic Accounting Techniques and Fraud Prevention in Sierra Leonean Deposit Money Banks

“…Alabdullah, Alfadhl, Yahya, and Rabi [69] examined the impact of forensic accounting on financial corruption. The study made use of primary data and employed correlation research design.…”

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“…Penerapan terhadap pola pikir dan keahlian akuntansi forensik sangat penting untuk mencegah, mendeteksi dan menanggapi kecurangan pada kinerja tugas terhadap penilaian resiko tindak kejahatan kecurangan di sektor publik Malaysia dan Nigeria (Popoola et al 2014a;Popoola et al 2014b). Akuntansi forensik dapat mencegah dan membatasi cakupan kecurangan, sebagai hasil dari studi; ditemukan adanya pengaruh penggunaan akuntansi forensik dalam mendeteksi kasuskasus korupsi keuangan (Alabdullah et al 2014). Akuntansi forensik telah di terapkan untuk mengungkap dan mengurangi kejahatan di negara-negara seperti Inggris, Kanada, Jerman dan Amerika (Gbegi dan Adebisi 2014).…”

“…Dengan dimasukkannya akuntansi forensik kedalam kurikulum maka tindak pidana keuangan khususnya korupsi akan berkurang. Ini sejalan dengan studi yang dilakukan oleh Alabdullah et al (2014) K e s i m p u l a n d a n P e m b a t a s a n…”

Forensic Accounting Education In Bahrain: A Survey on Educators’ Opinion

“…The importance of forensic accounting also can exceed any expectation that it might help countries from crimes related to financial corruption for example Abdullah (2014) conducted a study to investigate the impact of using forensic accounting in minimizing financial corruption in Iraq. The study used survey questionnaire distributed to 29 specialist lecturers from Iraqi universities.…”