On the prevention of accounting fraud, 1 on the prevention of accounting fraud.
With the development of society, great changes have taken place in China's economic system and enterprises have developed rapidly, which requires planning accounting information. At present, some accounting practitioners abandon their original professional ethics in order to pursue their own interests, and the phenomenon of enterprise accounting fraud frequently appears. These behaviors affect the stable and orderly development of enterprises to a certain extent and have a negative impact on the economic system. This paper profoundly expounds the forms and harms of accounting fraud, and then analyzes the reasons and conditions of accounting fraud, so as to obtain the prevention and control measures of accounting fraud, and establish and improve the internal control system of enterprises.
Keywords: accounting fraud causes governance
First, the form and harm of accounting fraud
There are various forms of accounting fraud, mainly to avoid taxes and fees or deliberately make profits. Some accountants make fraud in order to transfer assets to their own names, while others are instructed to make fraud activities. In order to make a profit, accountants often falsify by changing business processes and accounting vouchers. Accounting procedure fraud is mainly in violation of state regulations, illegal profits, and failure to act according to rules and regulations. Voucher tampering is to use some fake invoices or reimbursement vouchers to obtain private interests. When private interests are satisfied, it will lead to stronger desire and more serious accounting fraud, which is very undesirable to affect economic development and the benign development of enterprises.
Because the main purpose of accounting fraud is to make profits, and individuals or some organizations make profits, which will damage the collective interests and cause inevitable losses to enterprises and countries. After this loss is amplified, it will even affect the development of the national economy, leading to a slowdown in the development of the national economy. Therefore, we should put an end to this kind of behavior. The reasons for the breakdown of accounting fraud can be divided into five categories: first, it affects the operation of the capital market, leading to unhealthy and inactive market development; Second, it affects the interests of shareholders and obligees, and gives some lawless elements the opportunity to unjustly benefit; Third, it will affect the decision-making of operators, resulting in operators not getting real data and seriously interfering with the economic development system; Fourth, enterprises have suffered losses, and many improper acquisitions or sales have brought devastating disasters to enterprises [2].
Second, the causes of accounting fraud
(A) the accountants themselves lack professional ethics and their own quality is not high.
Many accountants have been tempted by all kinds from the day they started working. At the same time, hedonism and selfishness are prevalent in society. They handle a lot of money every day, but their income is limited, which will naturally affect the accountant's outlook on life. Therefore, some people give up their professional ethics and forge accounting vouchers by themselves or in collusion with others, which opens the door for some people's illegal activities and even harms the interests of enterprises.
(two) the legal supervision system is not strict, and there is a lack of effective supervision means in the industry.
In terms of law, although China has issued many laws and regulations to control accounting fraud, the society is developing rapidly, the techniques and means of fraud are constantly updated, and some fraud behaviors cannot be found and investigated in the first time, and there is a lack of effective supervision system [3]. Due to limited resources, all departments can't supervise anytime and anywhere. At the same time, the internal audit department is usually set up according to national regulations, and the quality of personnel is limited. It is often just a formality, which does not play a practical role. On the contrary, it adds unnecessary burden and drag to enterprises.
(C) complex external interests of enterprises, limited external supervision
Many enterprises' accounting fraud behavior comes from the fact that enterprises want to blindly expand their operations or cater to the task needs of local governments. Because the economic development in many places is directly related to the vital interests of many people, it is inevitable that accounting fraud will not be used to cover up the lack of development momentum and strive for the balance between book profits and state investment. At the same time, the state's management of issuing invoices is not very strict, and there are many loopholes. It is easy to issue false invoices in many places, which gives an opportunity for accounting fraud.
Three, accounting fraud prevention measures and remediation plan
(A) improve the basic quality of accounting personnel in enterprises, strictly control the selection of talents, and improve the internal control system of enterprises.
Enterprises should strictly control, select qualified talents, improve the professional ethics of financial personnel, and keep in mind Zhu? Mo Bao left the foundation to go to the National Accounting Institute? Don't make false accounts? Strengthen the training of accountants' own quality and professional knowledge. Only when you are familiar with the business can you not use it. In addition, to improve the internal control system of enterprises, we must attach importance to internal control, check in time when problems are found, strictly abide by rules and regulations, check accounting vouchers and process systems layer by layer, and check and confirm repeatedly to prevent accounting fraud.
(2) Improve accounting laws and regulations and severely punish accounting fraud.
Due to the vague responsibility of accounting subjects, some accounting frauds were not severely punished, but were transferred from their posts after investigation, or some people who instigated and forced accounting frauds were easily exempted [4]. Although the Accounting Law stipulates that the person in charge of the unit is the subject of accounting behavior, there is no corresponding punishment for those who instigate accounting fraud. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the accounting law and impose heavy penalties on accounting fraud as an example. Increasing the punishment for accounting fraud will also standardize accounting behavior and make accountants think twice before making fraud. Once an accountant makes fraud or assists in making fraud, not only the accountant should be punished, but also those who ask for making false accounts should be severely punished. How to grasp the evidence requires the cooperation of accounting practitioners and the improvement of supervision and investigation channels. Only in this way can accounting behavior be standardized.
(C) to strengthen the control of internal and external interests of enterprises, management should make more efforts.
Because some personal interests and corporate interests are mixed together, many people hope to obtain illegitimate interests through accounting fraud, so we should optimize the internal and external environment of enterprises, advocate the spirit of honesty, improve some enterprise assessment methods, rationally distribute power and interests, consider the binding role between different positions, and strengthen the monitoring of accounting business processing, so that accounting cost personnel will be discovered and suppressed immediately once they take action [5]. At the same time, invoices should be strictly controlled. Not only the person who posted the invoice for reimbursement should be responsible for the bill, but also the person who approved it should bear the corresponding responsibility. It is necessary to prevent false invoices from flowing into enterprises, strengthen supervision and control accounting fraud.
Four. conclusion
In short, we need to improve the level of accounting practitioners, standardize their operations, retain high-quality accounting practitioners, strengthen management and control, control the external and internal interests of enterprises, change the previous financial model, supervise each other and rationally distribute power, strive for transparency in accounting accounts and prevent accounting fraud.
References:
[1] Hong Hong, Hu Huaxia, Guo Chunfei. Research on fraud identification of financial reports of listed companies based on GoE theory [J]. Accounting Research.2012 (08).
[2] Sheng Lan. Strengthen accounting supervision and put an end to accounting fraud [J]. Management and technology of small and medium-sized enterprises (last issue) .2011(10).
[3] Lin Wei, Xu Liwen and Liu Jia. Identification of fraud in financial reports of listed companies ―― An empirical study based on triangle theory [J]. Audit research.2011(02).
[4] Shi Dongyue. On the professional ability and quality requirements of accountants in small and medium-sized enterprises [J]. Office business.2012 (07).
[5] Zhu. On the Prevention and Treatment of Accounting Fraud [J]. Modern Economic Information.2011(22).
Prevention and Governance of Accounting Fraud Chapter II Prevention and Analysis of Accounting Fraud
Introduction to 0
There are many reasons for accounting fraud, but they mainly include internal motivation and external environment: there is a certain interest relationship between accounting information producers and accounting information, which is the internal motivation for producing false accounting information; Unclear enterprise property rights, political economy, cultural environment, professional ethics of accountants and other factors constitute the external conditions of accounting information distortion. The combination of the above two aspects will lead to the distortion of accounting information.
Reasons for accounting fraud in 1
The property right of 1. 1 is unclear, which makes accounting lose the foundation of credit establishment. Under the state-owned property right system, there is no long-term correlation between the business operators and the credit of the enterprises they operate. Although private enterprises have clear property rights and natural institutional advantages, in the economic system with the state-owned economy as the main body, they deeply feel that property rights are not guaranteed and may be deprived at any time, so property rights are actually not clear. So we have to pursue short-term, quick and unwilling to invest to maintain the establishment of credit, which leads to its loss of long-term stability expectations; Enterprises driven by short-term interests will lose the pressure of stakeholders (shareholders) to audit them fairly. When the trustee focuses on short-term interests, he will inevitably choose dishonesty, and these dishonest behaviors will be manifested in the form of accounting fraud and accounting dishonesty.
1.2 ? Entrusted agent? There is no independent principal in the contract. The so-called principal-agent relationship should include the principal and the agent: one is the actual owner of the asset, that is, the principal; The other party is the actual operator of the asset, that is, the agent. How does the independent position of the client determine the actual performance of accounting integrity under the condition of asymmetric information? If the client can be clear about his existence, it means that the client may have enough influence on accounting, and the realization of accounting integrity will be more realistic; On the contrary, once we can't find a certain customer, it means that the customer can't influence the accounting. At this time, accounting integrity loses its motivation and necessity, so accounting fraud will emerge one after another.
Under the current property right system in China, there is no such thing as determining an independent client. The rational investment concept with institutional investors as the main body and standardized financial analysis as the evaluation standard is far from being formed. Shareholders? There are not many long-term investors. Relatively speaking, making short-term price difference is the main purpose? Shareholders? But there are many people, and the wind of speculation prevails; The principal can not be independent and clear, and the principal is highly free to flow, which makes enterprise accounting completely controlled and obeyed by the management authorities; However, the shareholders' meeting, which truly represents the entrusting party to exercise its rights, is ineffective, which makes it more difficult to build integrity in the accounting industry.
1.3 The independence of enterprises and accountants is poor, and the legal protection is insufficient. As a subordinate of the leader, accounting has become a tool for the leader to directly manipulate and reflect his intentions; In addition, unit leaders and accountants have poor legal awareness, weak legal concept, weak professional ethics, imperfect internal control and unreasonable corporate governance structure. Accountants are usually responsible for providing information and acting as internal auditors. The modern enterprise system has not been effectively realized in reality, and the functions of mutual supervision and restraint of shareholders' meeting, board of directors, board of supervisors and managers have not really been brought into play, which weakens the effectiveness of internal supervision and restraint of enterprises. Sometimes, the members of the board of supervisors and the administrative relationship cannot remain independent, and their status and treatment are basically decided by the management, so they cannot assume the responsibility of supervising the board of directors and the management.
1.4 the policies and behaviors of government supervision departments are changeable, which creates conditions for accounting dishonesty. The more government controls, the more fickle policies, the more unstable people's expectations for the future, and the more difficult it is to establish a long-term social credit mechanism.
1.5 social supervision departments failed to play an effective role. In the process of accounting information disclosure, audit plays a very important role, because the judgment and use of accounting information by the client depends largely on the authentication opinions of certified public accountants.
2 Analysis of measures to prevent accounting fraud
2. 1 Clarify that the basic function of the property right system is to provide people with a stable expectation of pursuing long-term interests and a premise or rule of repeated games. Paying attention to credit means that in order to obtain long-term benefits, people restrain their daily behavior in a specific environment to make it conform to social ethics. It can be seen that clear property rights are the premise to ensure people to consider long-term interests, and credit can be established and maintained under the condition that this premise exists in reality; Otherwise, without clear property rights as the basis, no one will abide by credit in order to obtain long-term benefits, and credit is out of the question.
2.2 Clarify the independent position of the client in the accounting industry, and accounting has become the basis for maintaining the relationship between investors and operators, enterprises and the market. In this principal-agent relationship, if the principal is at an information disadvantage, the interests of the principal can be effectively protected by modern accounting system with true and reliable accounting information; However, if the entrusting party can't position itself independently, accounting fraud will be disastrous. Because the entrusting party is not clear, the victim of the lack of accounting integrity will be uncertain, which will further aggravate the lack of accounting integrity. Therefore, it is very important to clarify the independent status of the client.
2.3 Strict internal control
2.3. 1 Strengthen the basic accounting work. Reasonably allocate accounting posts, realize internal containment between accounting posts, and strengthen the implementation of internal control; Standardize the legality and validity of the original vouchers required for accounting data, and at the same time standardize the legality and validity of accounting books and statements to ensure that all units set up accounting books and prepare accounting statements according to law; Clarify the post responsibility system, strictly implement the internal audit system, set up internal audit institutions, strengthen supervision and inspection of all kinds of basic accounting data, ensure that the accounts are consistent with the accounts, and ensure their authenticity and legitimacy.
2.3.2 Implement the system of management participation, effectively supervise the daily business activities of managers and prevent accounting fraud. Management participation system is to give subordinate employees or their representatives the opportunity to participate in the decision-making of the company's development goals and supervise the daily business activities of managers. It is also the redistribution of managers' management power, that is, adjusting the unequal rights relationship between employers and employees, so that the power of those in power can be better restrained, and the rights and autonomy of those who obey can be improved and compensated, so as to realize the supervision, restraint and checks and balances of power and prevent fraud.
2.3.3 Establish a strong restraint mechanism for shareholders to managers. The shareholders' meeting shall regularly review the company's financial report, strictly evaluate the manager's operating performance, and decide to appoint or dismiss the manager.
2.4 Improve the corporate governance structure
2.4. 1 Effectively establish a modern enterprise system. Completely separate enterprise ownership from management right, and establish a corporate governance structure with decision-making power, supervision power and subordinate power separated. The principal-agent relationship between investors and operators is conducive to strengthening financial binding force, giving full play to the different functions of shareholders' meeting, board of directors and board of supervisors, thus forming a system of mutual supervision and restriction.
2.4.2 Decentralize the equity of major shareholders. Through the adjustment of ownership structure, we can disperse the shares of major shareholders and increase the mutual checks and balances between shares to solve the problem. Monopoly? problem
2.4.3 Improve the performance evaluation mechanism. Consider adding some non-financial accounting indicators related to the sustainable operation ability of enterprises, so as to link the interests of agents with the constraints of enterprise goals.
2.4.4 Implement the credit insurance system. In other words, listed companies are required to insure the integrity insurance with insurance companies. When a listed company damages the interests of investors due to the problem of good faith, the insurance company must be responsible for compensation. This not only ensures that the interests of investors are not lost, but also enables insurance companies to strengthen supervision of the company for their own interests.
2.5 Improve and gradually improve the benefit distribution and incentive mechanism. Imperfect and unreasonable interest distribution and assessment incentive mechanism are the economic roots of accounting fraud. Only by improving and perfecting the benefit distribution and incentive mechanism can accounting information fraud be fundamentally prevented.
2.5. 1 Establish a balanced mechanism of interest distribution, straighten out the interest distribution relationship among the state, local governments, enterprises and employees, and give consideration to the interests of all parties.
2.5.2 Improve the current performance appraisal system and the corresponding incentive mechanism. The evaluation of leading cadres and managers should be combined with qualitative assessment in addition to figures.
2.6 standardize government behavior and make the government an example of credit. People without faith in western countries are naturally eliminated by society and market, so the government should not be given too much power, and the scope of government power should be strictly limited and clearly defined. For example, minimize government approval; Clean up the almost unrestricted power of government departments to formulate laws and policies that benefit others and harm others; Prohibit the government from directly participating in market transactions; Maintain policy stability and so on. Only when the government takes the lead in keeping promises, can government policies be truly effective, control can be just right, property rights can be protected, and the whole society will form a fashion of keeping promises.
In addition, trade associations and certification intermediaries that rely on the government to obtain monopoly power are harmful to the establishment of credit. They rent by monopoly, without considering their own credit at all. Therefore, it is necessary to reform the China Institute of Accounting and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, which are closely related to accounting. Trade associations that grow up in the market will really know how to care about credit problems.
2.7 Implementation of the Market Exit Mechanism China should establish an effective exit mechanism as soon as possible, and expel those enterprises or individuals who do not abide by industry ethics from relevant industries once they break their promises. For example, listed companies that make false accounts should immediately withdraw from the market; Intermediaries involved in fraud should be banned; The person in charge of the unit, accounting personnel and certified public accountants shall not continue to engage in related occupations.
2.8 Implement the integrity project, establish integrity files, step up the establishment and implementation of the integrity file management and evaluation system for certified public accountants, enterprises and accountants, record units, firms and individuals that violate integrity, facilitate citizens to inquire at any time, and enhance the crisis awareness and integrity awareness of units and individuals.