FORENSIC ACCOUNTING: THE ESSENCE AND PROSPECTS OF DEVELOPMENT IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The subject of the study is a set of theoretical, organizational, and methodological principles for the development of forensic accounting in Ukraine. General scientific and special methods of cognition are the methodological basis of the study. The content of the concept “forensic accounting” is specified using theoretical generalization methods; the comparison of audit and forensic accounting using comparison method is carried out. Using the abstract-logical method and structural-logical analysis, features, current problems, and obstacles to the development of forensic accounting in Ukraine are determined. The objective of the study is to consider the essence of the concept of “forensic accounting”, to introduce the main obstacles, and to propose a list of measures for its development in Ukraine. As a result of the study, it is established that forensic accounting is a combination of legal and financial audit and forensic accounting expertise. Therefore, experts of all these profiles should be involved to the forensic accounting, which will help the company solve the conflict situations related to fraud. It is substantiated that when improving the method of forensic accounting, it is necessary to understand its difference from the audit. The study found that the most common types of fraud faced by Ukrainian companies are asset theft, unreasonable and inappropriate spending. The most common ways to detect fraud in Ukraine are internal audit and informal internal sources. Only 10% of Ukrainian companies have experience in attracting external consultants to independent investigations. However, as practice shows, the very independent, unbiased view of the external specialist on the control system and business processes allows creating a high-quality system of preventive mechanisms for counteracting fraudulent actions and in general, improving the efficiency of business processes of the company. It is substantiated that forensic accounting is one of the effective instruments of an independent economic investigation. It is established that forensic accounting is quite new for Ukraine and audit and specialized companies are only at the beginning of the path in this direction. In order to develop this type of services, audit and specialized companies were suggested to expand the range of services in the direction of forensic accounting and the appropriate procedure for carrying out such activities. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the foreign experience of the training of specialists in the field of forensic accounting, that is, to start the training of specialists by including specialized courses on forensic accounting in the curricula of higher educational institutions. It is also necessary to develop the cooperation of Ukrainian professional organizations with foreign professional organizations in order to provide specialists with the possibility to obtain international certificates, as well as to involve audit, legal, and consulting companies in the process of professional training in forensic accounting. Study conclusion. Thus, forensic accounting includes a set of measures for the settlement of financial, economic, legal, commercial, and other issues that involve significant economic risks. The use of forensic accounting by domestic companies will increase the effectiveness of managing their business risks by adopting optimal management decisions and ensuring the profitability of the business.