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Importance of Forensic Accounting in Countries of Business Opacity: A Means to End Fraud
and the perception of implementing forensic accounting, whereby these two
elements are considered as major factors for the level of acceptance of such tool.

In other words, if a change is made in cultures of financially corrupted and opaque

business practices, it will result in changes in the people’s practices, norms, and
values, hence their behaviors; at the end, it will create an awareness and knowledge
about fraud and how to fight it and the tools that could be used to inhibit it. In D

addition, this process similarly applies to forensic accounting. E
C

B. Forensic Accounting in Education: E
P

Although there is a growing demand for fraud and forensic accounting globally, T

much of its advancement and adoption in the accounting curriculum in the I
universities are taking place in the developed economies. The adoption of forensic O

accounting into the universities accounting curriculum has a huge potential to N
enhance students’ skills and competencies and could be used as a veritable resource
from which fraud could be mitigated.

Many cases reveal that those who commit fraud are not necessarily geniuses or

have a creative mind. They are typical accountants who copy fraud schemes from
the past. Therefore, the importance of the programs for fraud prevention/detection
education and training is emphasized, and the question is raised about whether the

business school at universities offers enough programs to educate accounting and
auditing professionals for fraud prevention/detection.

Forensic Accounting is not only restricted to university programs, there is also
a specialized certificate that is concerned with forensic accounting, which is

the Diploma in Investigative & Forensic Accounting (DIFA) program. DIFA is
designed to provide a broad range of knowledge and skills to carry out financial

investigations. This range includes accounting, audit, income tax knowledge,
fraud knowledge, of law and rules of evidence, an investigative mentality and
critical skepticism, understanding of psychology and motivation, and strong

communication skills.

The DIFA program focuses on knowledge and skills that can be best taught and
examined in person: such as handling a face-to-face meeting with a client,

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