FORENSIC AUDIT AND FINANCAL REPORTING FRAUD IN NIGERIAN QUOTED FIRMS

ABSTRACT

This study analyzes forensic audit and financial reporting fraud in Nigerian quoted firms for the period of five years ranging from 2019-2023. Four research questions were formulated in line with four objectives. The research design employed in this study is Ex-post facto research. Ex-post facto research determines the cause-effect relationship among variables. Only secondary data was used in this study. The statistical tool used to test the hypothesis was STATA 13 statistical software, using coefficient of correlation which is a good measure of relationship between variables. The following variables were used; Financial restatements is the dependent variable and firm size, leverage, firm age and forensic auditing are the independent variable. The study found that firm size and firm age has an insignificant effect on financial reporting fraud in Nigerian quoted firms, leverage has a marginally significant positive relationship with financial reporting fraud in Nigerian quoted firms and forensic auditing has a highly significant positive impact on the detection of financial reporting fraud in Nigerian quoted firms. Based on the above, the Study recommended that regulatory bodies encourage the adoption of forensic audit practices across all sectors, it is also recommended that firms with higher leverage should be subject to increased scrutiny and more frequent audits, also focus should be on factors that impact financial reporting fraud instead of factors like firm age and size in order to enhance prevent and detect financial reporting fraud. Keywords: Forensic audit, Financial Reporting Fraud, Leverage, Nigerian quoted firms