Introduction
Accounting fraud in Saudi Arabia
The Saudi Arabia monetary authority describes financial fraud as an act that involves the deceit to obtain indirect or direct financial benefit. However, the presence of advanced communication systems and modern technology become a double-edged sword apart from their intended goal. Importantly, the Saudi Arabian financial sector has operated for many ages and emerging a remarkable performance. As a result, the local banks developed as a partnership with well-developed banks or joint stock companies. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia consists of twelve that operate as commercial banks. The banking system has recorded a remarkable performance and growth regarding the structure, outreach, and sound financial health. Nevertheless, the financial organizations in Saudi Arabia face immense challenges regarding internal controls, misappropriation of funds, misstatement of the financial statements, and deception on financial reporting. The financial fraud and auditing are significant accounting threats that affect the performance of banks within the country.
Modern trends in accounting that yield adverse results to the financial organizations. The process involves several misappropriations of funds regarding various projects, and the business environment requires accountability and transparent reports from the auditors and accountants to enhance rationale decision making regarding investment. Misstating the financial statement involves one of the accounting frauds that hinder the smooth operation of the financial organizations. Therefore, the rise in fraudulent financial anatomy has led to diverse effects on financial organizations.
The financial organizations have the responsibility of preparing and issuing financial statements that reflect the actual position and the performance. Moreover, the entities should prepare financial statements that are accurate and can get relied upon by accounting and financial experts. Fraud is a global challenge and encompasses an issue of great apprehension in financial organizations. The auditors both internal and external render bias opinion on whether the financial reports represent the actual position of the firm. Accounting fraud involves the Saudi Arabians experiencing numerous challenges regarding financial fraud, and the major categories include the marketing of fake investment offers which get pioneered by unregistered organizations and unlicensed hiring which involve paying
Fraud and earnings management
Accounting stakeholders usually have a different perception concerning management. The primary examples of financial fraud include changing estimates from the expression. The managers may use judgment in structuring the transactions and financial reporting to alter some of the financial reports and mislead the stakeholders.
Consequently, it involves the administration intense to mislead stakeholders regarding the economic performance of the financial organizations. The examples accounting principles that benefit most during alteration of the accounting policy include:
a) Altering the depreciation method to a straight-line method.
b) Altering the estimates of salvage
c) Assessing whether the assets are impaired or should get reserved
d) Selecting an appropriate method of valuing inventory
Evaluating and estimating the write-downs necessary for investments.
Accounting fraud involves the intentional perpetration of illegal acts that have a direct impact on the financial statements. Moreover, it encompasses the financial disclosures or material misstatement of financial facts. Typically, perpetrators of fraud may get influenced by personal gain and dishonest to protect personal gain.
The auditors are one of the vital accounting officers that evaluate the financial statements to ensure that they reflect the intended purpose and represent the fact. Regarding the financial control measures, someone would expect the outside auditors are a result of their competence and profession obligation on the auditing process. Nevertheless, this expectation has fallen in vain in some instances. Some of the ethical accounting issues associated with auditing note some of the auditors get charged with false reporting regarding the financial statements. Moreover, some of the most essential financial frauds become difficult to perpetrate as a result of the cooperation with the auditors.
The Aim of the Study
The research will critically examine the correlation of ethics in fraud and auditing in the financial organizations in Saudi Arabia. The modern world is multifaceted with significant challenges emanating from misstatement, misappropriation of financial statements and false financial reporting.
Research Objectives
1. To critically examine the correlation of in financial fraud and auditing in Saudi Arabia organizations.
2. To critically assess the relationship between financial fraud and auditing in Saudi Arabia organizations.
Research Questions
1. What is the relationship between financial fraud and auditing in Saudi Arabia organizations?
2. What is the correlation between fraud and financial auditing in Saudi Arabia organizations?
Literature Review
The financial fraud involves the falsification of facts represented by an organization or an individual to receive awards or financial favours. Financial fraud and auditing, share common factors that encourage ethics in finance to use plans that can help to curb financial problems organizations of finance. The ethics in financial fraud and auditing among different organizations in Saudi Arabia are affecting the financial institution. Financial fraud takes many forms depending on the type or the nature of the institution involved in financial activities. Generally, this synthesis seeks to analyse the correlation of ethics in the financial fraud and internal auditing among the Saudi Arabia financial institutes and ascertain issues therein.
During the financial years of companies, firms, and the financial institution, they produce reports to elaborate the use of the funds according to their plans their set before the set of their annual projects. The ethic of auditing among the companies and other financial organizations perform verification before producing the Fiscal Year reports, and this may expose fraud. Some issues become the debacles that hurt the growth of the institution because the financial organizations may cover the problems to safeguard their financial interests. There are specific auditing reports those can help the financial institution to uncover the mask behind the fraud and this may be interfered with by the other rival firms to win the tenders due to their competence in financial accuracy.
Saudi Arabia is a nation that is ethically upright in terms of cultural factors and religious basis. The most crucial aspects are the commitments to observe the utmost of good faith for all levels of professionalism. The financial fraud and ethics violation reporting have been the critical role of eradicating matters concerning financial commitments. All the professionals of the financial organizations should comply with the ethical procedure of the issues concerning finance. The financial organizations should set good standards of ethics to correct and eliminate the potential frauds in the financial auditing. This factor makes the Saudi Arabians organizations of finance to be committed in to maintain the highest ethical principles and professional standards. All the employees in these organizations, learners, and the stakeholders require to feed any possible information to stop fraud through the establishment of hotlines and other reasonable means of communication. This hotline should be accessible to ensure that Saudi Arabia operates at the utmost of ethical responsibility.
Ethics and integrity are working against all the fraud to enhance the excellent image of the government and demo the ethical foundations through professional norms. The government gives the learners the opportunity to observe the best education levels of understanding the ethical advantages of eliminating the fraud of internal auditing within the financial organizations. The government imposes laws that can change the behaviour of the fraudsters in all the financial concerning bodies. The government also has been fighting corruption to slow down the culture of fraud in different levels of financial organizations. Anti-corruption and ethnic control bodies set the standards rules and regulation of understanding the relationship between the internal auditing and financial fraud. Therefore, according to many findings, the financial fraud, and the internal auditing reports correlates the factors behind the operations hence causing the fraud to happen if all the possible ethics are not complied with correctly.
Therefore, the issue of fraud in the world of business operations and finance has become an evidence-based issue that affects global economics. Evictions to tax, lack of production of the decent or valid financial auditing describe the ethical concern in these factors. During the financial management decision-making, the risk of fraud in the organizations that handle funds sets a risk management part to forecast on the same issue. In large sections of controlling fraud in some countries like in Saudi Arabia, internal auditing covers the real report from the owners of finance due to some fraud encouraging processes like corruption. The leadership in Saudi Arabia helps ethical observation in different financial organizations in the entire society of finance. This ethics should be accessible to ensure that Saudi Arabia operates at the utmost of ethical responsibility. The finance remains the confidential information for the entire country and protection from the fraud of finance and internal auditing of funds firms.
The ethical practice in every field of profession starts with everyone regardless of position spreads and shares in the responsibility and a role for promoting an ethical and safe environment from financial fraud and impermeable internal auditing. Everyone should report any matter associated with fraud in all the fields of finance as in suggestive ethical facts like auditing, accounting, financial calculation, and even the fraud suspects within the financial organizations. All the stakeholders should work with or close to each other to make sure the ethics are the key factors that guide every stakeholder. In Saudi Arabia, members of financial institution work together according to law, regulation, against all the uncertainties of a violation occurring in the financial line ups. An excellent example of reportable issues may include fraud, misuse of financial institution properties or resources, and information, abuse of safety rules or environmental law against the financial resources. The conflict of interest is also another ethical procedure that requires more observation in the ethical process in decision making in financial organizations. Therefore, everyone has an equal duty to report any matter concerning the violation of the ethics of financial fraud and internal auditing.
Research Approach
This study will adopt the qualitative approach to research the impact of the correlation of ethics and internal fraud among the financial organizations in Saudi Arabia. The qualitative approach is based on the grounded theory and explains the reasons behind specific occurrences. Qualitative data is easier to understand compared to other forms of data and will help to deduce rational conclusions. The researcher will adopt the questionnaire and interviews to collect the qualitative data collected from the participants. A sample of 55 participants will get selected from the financial organizations in Saudi Arabia out of the 500 senior staffs in the major banks of Saudi Arabia using a systematic random sampling method. The study would adopt SPSS software 23 to analyse the results through the descriptive statistics.
Validity and Reliability
Reliability encompasses the consistency of the measure. The researcher will embrace re-test reliability to will get calculated through a graphical representation of data in the scatter plot. In particular, the researcher will compute Pearson’s r measure to test the reliability of the research instrument. Consequently, internal reliability will get computed by collecting data and split it into two datasets. Afterward, the researcher will examine the relationship between the two data sets to determine reliability.
Potential Outcomes
Financial fraud is one of the modern challenges facing financial organizations in Saudi Arabia. Fraud in auditing is also a threat to financial organizations, and the study will critically examine the potential ethics in financial fraud and auditing. The outcomes will encompass the various ethics required. The Results will outline the ethics in fraud and auditing and their consequences to the financial organizations in Saudi Arabia.
Limitations
The study on the correlation of ethics in fraud and auditing in the financial institution based in Saudi Arabia will get limited by a relatively smaller sample size that may not reflect the entire population. Moreover, the wilful presentation of the data by the respondents may get comprised as a result of their nature of work. The other limitation includes the use of secondary sources which may require critical attention.
Delimitation of the Research
The researcher will adopt a systematic random sampling technique to ensure that the entire population gets represented. Furthermore, the examiner will notify participants of the purpose of the research and make prompt replies regarding all aspects of the study. Consequently, reviewing the relevant secondary data will enhance reliability.
Contribution to Knowledge
The research on the ethics between fraud and auditing in the Saudi Arabia is relevant and will uncover essential insights concerning the incident of fraud and auditing in Saudi Arabian banks. Moreover, it would suggest the potential strategies that banks can adopt to minimize the instances of financial fraud.
Proposed Dissertation Chapters
The primary suggested dissertation chapters regarding the study on the correlation between the ethics in fraud and auditing on the Saudi Arabia include the introduction, literature review, methodology, data analysis and presentation, discussions and recommendations, and conclusion.