Abstract

Financial statements reflect the financial effects of business transactions and events on the entity, internal control system if adequate will help in reducing the activities of fraudulent stakeholders. Forensic accounting focus is on both evidence of economic transactions and reporting which is as contained within an accounting system. Cases of financial statement misrepresentation have been reported, affected companies and their auditors have gone down while shareholders were greatly affected. This study examined the relevance of forensic accounting techniques in ensuring the integrity of the financial statements. Stakeholders who members of recognised professional accountancy bodies in Nigeria were requested to answer research questions. This study adopts survey research method with the use of primary data and purposive random sampling techniques. The sample size was calculated with the formula by Krejceie and Morgan (1970). 350 copies of questionnaires were administered, and 321 questionnaires were returned, representing 92% of the entire questionnaire. Nominal scale method was used in the demographic section while Likert scale was used in other sections of the questionnaire. Hypotheses were formulated, tested, and analysed using multiple regression analysis. It was found that forensic accounting techniques “FAT” (FPDDS, FAIIS, LMAS, and CARDR) have positive influence on the integrity of financial statements (IFS) of business organisations, as evidenced from the individual level of significance of 0.006, 0.045, 0.000, and 0.047 which are less than the 5?ceptable level of significance and the coefficient of determination of the main model of 0.23 meaning that about 23% variation of the IFS is attributable to FAT while the remaining 77% change in the IFS can be attributed to other factors not covered in the model. It was also found that the inclusion of forensic accounting techniques will strengthen the activities of internal control functions. This is also evidenced by the sign and size of the coefficients, that is ?4 - 7 are +0.203, +0.256, +0.270, and +0.134 respectively > 0. In conclusion, this study established that forensic accounting techniques are; fraud prevention, detection and deterrence skills, forensic audit, forensic investigation, and forensic interviewing skills, litigation, mediation and arbitration skills, and computer-assisted reviews and document reviews. The study recommended that business organisations should consider setting up forensic accounting unit within an organisation to lend credence to the integrity of financial statement of business organisations.