FORENSIC ACCOUNTING SKILLS REQUIRED BY ACCOUNTING EDUCATION GRADUATES FOR EFFECTIVE ACQUISITION OF FRAUD DETECTION SKILLS

Abstract

The study was carried out to identify forensic accounting skills required by accounting education graduates for effective acquisition of fraud detection skills in universities in Cross River State. Nigeria. It also investigated the extent to which forensic accounting education can enhance the acquisition of fraud detection skills among accounting students. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The population of the study consisted of all accounting educators in public universities in Cross River State and all senior accountants in the 39 government ministries in Calabar. This brought the total population of accounting educators to 30 and that of accountants to 108. Census method was adopted as the sampling technique for the accounting educators while purposive sampling technique was adopted for the accountants. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire which was validated by a research expert in accounting and a business educator. Copies of the questionnaire were administered to the respondents. The completed copies returned were 22 copies for the accounting educators and 96 for the accountants. It was this number that was used in generating data used for the answering of the research questions. Data collected from the respondents were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation; also, the hypotheses formulated were tested using independent-t-test statistic at 0.05 level of significance. The results revealed that areas of forensic accounting be included in the curriculum of accounting education because it can enhance the acquisition of fraud detection skill. It was recommended that forensic accounting education be introduced into the accounting education curriculum.