Practical Training and the Audit Expectations Gap:The Case of Accounting Undergraduates of Universiti Utara Malaysia

The accounting profession has long faced the issue of an audit expectations gap; being the gap between the quality of the profession’s performance, its objectives and results, and that which the society expects. The profession believes that the gap could be reduced over time through education. Studies have been carried out overseas and in Malaysia to determine the effect of education in narrowing the audit expectations gap. Extending the knowledge acquired, this paper investigates whether academic internship programs could reduce the audit expectations gap in Malaysia. Using a pre-post method, the research instrument adapted from Ferguson et al. (2000) is administered to the Universiti Utara Malaysia’s accounting students at the beginning and end of their internship program. The results show there is a significant change in perceptions among students after the internship program. However, changes in perceptions do not warrant an internship program as a means of reducing the audit expectations gap as misperceptions are still found among respondents on issues of auditing after the completion of the internship program. Nevertheless, an internship program can still be used to complement audit education in a university as it is an ideal way to expose students to professional issues and enables them to have a better insight of the actual performance and duties of auditors

Fraud and the Evolution of Forensic Accounting Education

Forensic accounting, the use of accounting practices in court, developed as a field separate from traditional accounting or auditing throughout the 1900’s. As fraud changed the landscape of auditing practice, forensic accounting slowly began to take shape as the accountant’s answer to fraud. After a series of major frauds at the beginning of the 21st century, forensic accounting became one of the most demanded fields of accounting. The profession, though, was still relatively in its infancy: forensic accountants were predominantly untrained aside from firsthand experience. Since the early 2000’s, schools have begun rapidly implementing forensic accounting programs to meet the increasing demand for forensic accountants. As the demand continues to increase, however, education offerings will be needed

FRAUD AND ERROR. AUDITORS' RESPONSIBILITY LEVELS

Are auditors responsible for detecting fraud in the companies they inspect? Most ofthe public thinks they are. Auditors often demur. The auditors' duties for the prevention, detectionand reporting of fraud, other illegal acts and errors is one of the most controversial issues inauditing. This paper reports the findings of a survey that explores the financial report users’perceptions on the extent of fraud in Romania and their perceptions of auditors’ responsibilities indetecting fraud and the related audit procedures. This study also finds that there is a widely heldmisperception of the objective of an audit. This is because, among respondents, a much higherexpectation has been placed on the auditors' duties in detecting and reporting fraud than statute oraudit standards require. The results of the study show unquestionably the existence, with respect todetection of fraud, of a gap between the perception of the respondents and the present statutoryrequirements of auditors.fraud; auditors’ responsibilities; audit expectation gap

Detection of Fraudulent Financial Statements Using the Beneish Ratio Index for Manufacturing Companies Listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange in 2016 and 2017 Period

Fraud is an action taken intentionally and it is done for personal or other people's purposes, where the action has caused harm to certain parties or certain institutions. Misstatements contained in fraudulent financial statements are intentional misstatements to deceive users of financial statements. The source of this misstatement includes manipulation or falsification of accounting records, intentional misstatements or omissions from financial statements, and / or incorrect application of accounting principles. In Indonesia, accounting fraud also occurs at the company level, both private and government companies. On December 6, 2012, the announcement of Indonesia's score in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) was 32 and ranked 118th out of 176 countries which measured the level of corruption (Transparency International, 2012). In 2001, a fraud scandal occurred by PT Kimia Farma Tbk. PT Kimia Farma is a state-owned company whose shares have been traded on the exchange to become public company. Based on indications by the Ministry of BUMN and Bapepam's examination, it was found that there were misstatements in the financial statements which resulted in overstatement of net income for the year ended 31 December 2001 of Rp. 32.7 billion, which represented 2.3% of sales and 24.7% from net income. The author's purpose of this study is to discuss about detecting fraud in financial statements by using 5 (five) of the 8 (eight) Beneish ratio indices, because Beneish's research states that the Days Sales in Receivables Index (DSRI) ratio index, the Gross Margin Index ( GMI), Asset Quality Index (AQI), Sales Growth Index (SGI), and Total Accrual to Total Asst Index (TATA) have significant results to detect financial report manipulation