Detecting Management Fraud - Some Organizational Strategies for the Independent Auditor (From Management Fraud, P 195-206, 1980, by Robert K Elliott and John J Willingham - See NCJ-70386)

• NCJ Number: 70394
• Author(s): J E Sorensen; T L Sorensen
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 12 pages
• Sale Source: PBI
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Paper prepared for the Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Company Symposium on Management Fraud, June 1978.

Annotation

Approaches for improving independent auditors' fraud investigations are discussed.

Abstract

An investigative auditing approach currently used involves auditors using a checklist of 'red-flags' that can indicate whether the client is in an economic situation that makes fraud tempting or likely. A high score on the 'red-flag' checklist coupled with significant numbers of financial irregularities constitute circumstantial evidence that fraud exists. Should a particular 'red-flag' list not withstand empirical testing, items should be deleted or added as deemed appropriate under testing. The audit approach itself has been transformed under the stimulus of management fraud techniques. An open systems perspective has emerged that is characterized by a client system interacting in a larger system. This requires the auditor, for example, to have an understanding of the overall economy, industry, and environment in which the client operates, along with a general knowledge of the client's business operations. The idea of the open systems concept applied to the audit, however, needs to be further developed to ensure a more efficient and effective use of the concept. A useful tack would be the formulation of a behavioral perspective which could be applied simultaneously to the organizations of the client, the auditor, and other key entities, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such a perspective would be a basic framework that would permit each organization to be analyzed in relation to the larger environment. A promising model that takes this approach is a stress-strain perspective developed by Haas and Drabek. The components of their model explain patterned interaction sequences by reference to three explanatory structures: normative structure--preferred and required interaction for categories of persons in kinds or types of situations; interpersonal structure--responses to other individuals as persons rather than functionaries in a position; and resource structure--skills, physical materials, space, and information under the jurisdiction of or available to an organization. Footnotes are provided.