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Importance of Forensic Accounting in Countries of Business Opacity: A Means to End Fraud
to implement forensic accounting especially that it is not diffused worldwide.
The objective is to arrive at an answer to the research question and to show how

forensic accounting can be implemented in the countries characterized by an opaque
financial sector; the overall aim is to achieve this goal.

Literature Review

D
Different research has been conducted to define fraud including the types of fraud E
such as that of Gilbert (1997, p. 124) who defined “fraud” as: “an act using deceit C

such as intentional distortion of the truth of misrepresentation or concealment E
of a material fact to gain an unfair advantage over another in order to secure P
something of value or deprive another of a right. Fraud is grounds for setting aside a T

transaction at the option of the party prejudiced by it or for recovery of damages.” I

O
Farrell & Healy (2000) revealed about fraud that is increasing worldwide and is N
becoming more costly to businesses every year as fraudsters use intricate methods
to commit and cover their criminal acts.

Consequences of fraud can vary from public morality corrosion, weakened faith in

the organization, to loss in market valuation and confidence of stakeholders.

With the various definitions attributed to fraud, other research done highlighted the

importance of having internal control that would limit the continuous fraudulent
behaviors. External audits are also undertaken to ensure that internally instituted

fraud control mechanisms are adequate in scope, effective in application and
complied with. However, it is quite unfortunate to note that the complexity of the
human brain and its dynamic method of reasoning have tremendously diversified

present-day scams away from the hitherto known modes of fraudulent activities that
now render true corporate governance ideals almost unworkable.

It is thus worth mentioning that in an attempt to prevent fraud, the Auditing
Standard Board (ASB) in 2002 issued the Statements of Auditing Standard 99

(SAS 99) which introduced a “Fraud Triangle”. Fraud Triangle indicates that the
probability of committing fraud is high in situations when managements or other

employees have incentive or are under financial pressure, the conditions that
provide opportunities for management or employees to commit fraud exists,

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