Effect Of Forensic Accounting Services On Fraud Mitigation In Firms Listed At The Nairobi Securities Exchange, Kenya

Abstract

Due to the alarming increase in corporate fraud around the world, forensic accounting has in the recent past become an important area of discussion among academics and stakeholders of different organizations. Corporate fraud is reported as being the problematic issues for business organizations and as a result, several instances of collapse of big companies have been witnessed globally in the recent past. This is attributed to inadequacy of the statutory audit in detection of fraud. This study sought to establish the effects of forensic accounting services on fraud mitigation in firms listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. The target population comprised of all firms listed at the NSE that have evidently used forensic accounting services. The study employed a non-probability sampling (purposive sampling) technique to choose the sample frame. Primary data was collected from purposively selected staff working with the aforesaid firms. The collected data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 and Statistics and data (STATA) version 13 analytical tools. Diagnostic tests were carried out for multicollinearity and heteroscedasticity. The results of the analyses were presented in tabular form and were accompanied by pertinent interpretations and discussions. The study revealed that, there existed significant correlations between litigation support services, forensic data analysis and fraud awareness with fraud mitigation. The study recommends that listed firms should ensure that they have accountants with forensic accounting skills and analytical capacity in order to control and mitigate fraudulent activities.