When there are times of recession in the economies, globally, that ends up affecting companies. Difficult situations such as unemployment, high levels of indebtedness, low salaries, an environment of corruption or situations of economic crisis in general, are conducive for some people to choose to obtain economic benefits through illicit acts, leaving aside moral, ethical and ethical values. professionals to achieve them.
Different forms of fraud constitute a phenomenon that affects companies of any nature or size, whether public or private. It causes heavy economic losses, which can cause serious financial and labor problems. Therefore, it is of great importance to identify those areas of the company that are most susceptible to this type of fraud, and place the appropriate keys or internal control systems that allow them to minimize and prevent these events from occurring.
The forensic audit arises from the need of entities for specialized investigation and detection of crimes inside, in addition to serving as control and prevention. Even in judicial proceedings, it allows judges to have more auxiliary elements that help their judgment to impart justice, as it provides a clearer picture of the facts. Although conducting a forensic audit may seem in the eyes of businessmen as “one more expense out of pocket”, if we see it from a preventive point of view it can bring many more benefits and savings, if applied to the areas of greatest risk.
As a preventive tool
Although many see the forensic audit as a work to prevent and study acts of corruption, since most of the results are directed to the courts of justice (especially criminal), it should be noted that the forensic audit can be oriented to the investigation of malicious acts at the financial level of a company, the government or any organization that manages resources.
However, forensic auditing is much more comprehensive and useful as a specialized tool to detect and prevent financial crimes, such as fraud, corruption, money laundering, among others. The forensic audit, as a preventive tool, helps to recognize the areas that are most at risk of suffering some type of property crime, because although there are internal controls, these can be violated by the members of the organization (human factor), who take advantage and take advantage of the weaknesses and weaknesses of such controls.
It is necessary to be periodically evaluating the intervention of the human factor in the established procedures and controls, to combat the new fraud mechanisms within the entity. It is also convenient to establish a code of conduct among internal collaborators to strengthen the identity and philosophy of the company, and create a moral commitment. The preventive forensic audit also provides advice so that the same institution can detect and face some type of non-lawful act. For this, the implementation and strengthening of internal operational, administrative, fiscal and accounting controls in all organizations is necessary.