In 2008, a new profession has been quietly born in China: China forensic accountant, which indicates that China will be a country with more and more sound legal system in the 2 1 century, and it is also a new professional challenge for China accountants and lawyers to face the latest interdisciplinary, interdisciplinary and compound talents.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, especially at the end of 1990s, more and more forensic accountants testified as expert witnesses, and more and more forensic accountants were employed by government agencies, police stations, large listed companies and small private companies to conduct fraud investigations. More and more accounting firms have expanded their services and provided investigation and forensic accounting services to the outside world. At this time, people gradually began to agree that forensic accountants have a relatively professional and independent position in the accounting profession. By providing its unique professional services, forensic accountants have played an important role in solving economic disputes, improving the company's internal control system, participating in civil and criminal cases, and won the market and a good reputation. In the new century, forensic accounting is predicted to be the top of 2 1 century 100 hot occupations.
I. The concept of forensic accounting
Forensic accounting is a frontier science which comprehensively uses accounting, legal knowledge, auditing methods and investigation techniques in a specific discipline, aiming at obtaining relevant evidence by investigating accounting data, and presenting or stating it in court in a form acceptable to the court, so as to solve relevant legal problems. This is a new field of accounting.
Second, the development of forensic accounting
1. At present, the Subcommittee on Litigation and Disputes in the United States has issued many forensic accounting practices and special reports to help. According to the survey, as of June 1 day, 2007, at least 82 universities in the United States have carried out forensic accounting education.
2. The Canadian Institute of Certified Public Accountants has made remarkable achievements in formulating practical guidelines and standards for forensic accounting. From June 5 to 10, 2004, the Canadian Institute of Investigation and Forensic Accounting (CAIFA) and the Canadian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CICA) held the sixth annual seminar of the Alliance of Excellence in Investigation and Forensic Accounting in Toronto. Excellent forensic accounting The Canadian Federation, the rotman School of Management of the University of Toronto and the EcoledesHautesEtudes Business Language School in Montreal set up the professional study of forensic accounting on 200 1.
3.CPAAustralia is one of the two major accounting organizations in Australia. In 2002, the Australian Institute of Certified Public Accountants set up a forensic accounting discussion group, and ICAA, another accounting professional organization, set up a forensic accounting special interest group to study the methods of investigating fraud. In July 2002, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia, the Institute of International Legal Studies of monash Law School of Australia and the Australian Defence Association (FIAI) jointly set up a postgraduate diploma course in forensic accounting.
4. The Litigation Support Group (LSG) established by the Institute of Chartered Accountants provides guidance and help for forensic accounting in litigation services. And set up a fraud advisory group (FAP) in 1998.
5. At present, China University of Political Science and Law has set up a seminar on forensic accounting, and established a forensic accounting research center in 2007, which has become an important domestic forensic accounting research base, foreign service base, academic exchange base and talent training base; Therefore, the overall level of forensic accounting research occupies a significant leading position in China, and enjoys a high academic reputation in the international field, becoming a recognized key research center of forensic accounting. In 2008, China Renmin University, Southwest University of Political Science and Law and bohai university also set up forensic accounting majors.
Third, the motivation of project implementation
With the global economic integration, the scale of economic organizations is expanding day by day, modern financial instruments are constantly innovating, and the business environment of enterprises is changing rapidly. The forms of economic disputes and economic crimes are diverse and complex, and almost all economic behaviors are related to accounting and auditing. Standardizing market economy by law is the main feature of modern economy. With the rapid development of China's economic construction and the continuous improvement of the legal system, a large number of compound talents who are proficient in both accounting knowledge and legal knowledge, and master special investigation and auditing techniques and methods are needed. The importance of the combination of legal affairs and financial management in enterprise management positions is highlighted from the strategic level. However, the talents trained in China, such as accountants, auditors and lawyers, are mostly "single-type" and have only mastered certain professional knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary to cultivate and bring up a large number of "advanced compound talents" who are familiar with legal rules and financial planning and can adapt to global environmental changes. Many enterprises, institutions and judicial institutions have obviously increased their demand for such talents.
Fourth, the scope of application of forensic accounting
Forensic accounting is mainly used in major enterprises and institutions (state-owned enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises, joint ventures, group companies, private enterprises and so on). ), intermediary service consulting institutions (such as major accounting firms and risk management companies), listed companies, judicial and public security procuratorial organs, national audit departments, discipline inspection departments, fraud investigation and review institutions, etc. Under the market economy, forensic accounting knowledge will serve all industries and cover a wide range.
Government departments need forensic accountants to provide evidence of public officials' corruption, bribery and duty crimes. ※:
The police need forensic accountants to participate in the investigation and evidence collection of fraud and economic crimes and interpret financial data. ※:
Procuratorial organs need forensic accountants to cooperate in the collection of relevant accounting evidence and judicial appraisal of the evidence in the process of filing and investigating economic cases such as corruption and bribery crimes, dereliction of duty of state staff and prosecuting criminal suspects. ※:
The court will ask forensic accountants to be "experts" when trying complex economic cases involving financial and accounting professional issues. ※
Witness "(currently defined as" expert assistant "in China's law) appears in court to state and explain relevant accounting evidence;
Lawyers need professional litigation assistance and the support of forensic accountants in litigation agency or defense business. ※:
The management and supervision departments of the company need forensic accountants to intervene in the investigation and evidence collection of internal fraud to make up for the deficiency of internal audit. ※:
Banks and other financial institutions need forensic accountants to provide professional evidence support in the investigation of financial crimes such as money laundering and insurance fraud. ※:
All kinds of commercial investigation firms also need the professional assistance and support of forensic accountants in business activities involving debt settlement, contract disputes, personal injury, marriage investigation and property tracking. ※.
To sum up, according to the development trend of internationalization and marketization of Chinese enterprises and the needs of enterprise personnel training, we will strive to improve the post ability level of relevant personnel through nationwide training of forensic accounting, truly serve the expected goal of maximizing enterprise value, and effectively improve the comprehensive management ability and application level of enterprise managers. 、
Verb (abbreviation of verb) The career prospect of forensic accounting.
Forensic accounting is a new discipline that absorbs the basic principles of accounting and legal theory, especially the basic theory of evidence, as well as some technical methods of auditing and some statistical analysis and comparative analysis methods in statistics. From the professional point of view, it should be a compound and general-purpose talent who is familiar with relevant legal knowledge and proficient in accounting business, or a cross-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary talent. Forensic accounting mainly exists in three areas:
1. Enterprises and institutions. The main function of forensic accounting in this field is to make the financial accounting behavior of enterprises and institutions conform to the current national laws, and to maximize the financial interests of their own units on the premise of observing or not violating the laws; Comprehensive accounting data, economic laws and relevant laws and regulations can help management make better decisions, use legal weapons to negotiate and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.
Second, social intermediaries. For example, accounting firms and law firms are all important departments of forensic accounting application. After the demand of forensic accounting is determined, there must be such social groups to meet the needs of society, that is, professional groups to provide such services. Most accounting firms engaged in forensic accounting in China are foreign-funded accounting firms. For example: PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Ernst & Young, Deloitte, and some large domestic accounting firms. With the social attention to fraud, accounting firms should pay more attention to forensic accounting, and qualified accounting firms should actively develop their own forensic accounting departments, and develop their business from auditing to consulting fraud cases within the company until they testify in court to keep up with the pace of providing forensic accounting services. Due to the close combination of forensic accounting and law, accounting firms need to hire most lawyers or reach contact with law firms to strengthen their working ability in forensic accounting.
Three, procuratorial organs, public security organs and people's courts and other judicial organs and state audit departments. Judicial accounting of judicial organs is also an important part of forensic accounting. Judicial accounting investigation and trial of economic cases such as transaction disputes, corruption and bribery will inevitably involve the accounting data and accounting personnel of the audited unit. This requires judicial accounting not only to be proficient in law, but also to have accounting and auditing knowledge. Auditors in state audit institutions and enterprises should also be forensic accountants who are familiar with the relevant audit laws of the state and enterprises and understand accounting and auditing.
In addition, the international demand for forensic accountants is also rising. In Britain, the United States, Canada and other countries, the demand for forensic accountants has been rising. As early as "9? After the "1 1" incident, the United States even used forensic accounting in anti-terrorism investigations. The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants has proved that banks, financial institutions and large enterprises have begun to employ forensic accountants to prevent corporate fraud and other unethical behaviors.