Auditing Jobs & Corporate Scandals
 

I'm sure by now that you've heard all of the discussion about corporate financial scandals and accounting fraud. What's the solution that many companies are now having to scramble to fulfill?

With the legislation that congress has passed in recent years to shut down the aggregious violations we've seen in the major cases of corporate accounting fraud, companies are now, more than ever, in need of quality internal controls and audit strcutures. In order to safeguard and guarantee the accuracy and reliability of their financial data and profit reporting, chief executive and financial officers also are under greater pressure to keep the books clean. The chief executives are in a particularly unsettling position now, when their accounting data is inaccurate, as they are held personally, legally responsible for any accounting misdeeds.
On the employment level, these changes have lead to heightened scrutiny and analysis of company accounting and finances. These trends should, ultimately, create more opportunities for auditors, especially CPAs, to find more jobs where they will be responsible for thoroughly auditing company financial records. In order to ensure that there are now problems with innacurate accounting and reportin, auditors and CPAs will increasingly called upon to discover and eliminate fraud. In parallel, as government agencies are called upon to become more efficient and accountable, demand for government auditors and accounting services should also increase.

Even more specifically, the increased awareness of criminal activity in financial interactions, such as bribery, embezzlement, and securities fraud will cause greater demand for forensic accountants. These individuals are charged with identifying and detecting illegal financial behavior conducted by organized crime rings as well as individuals and companies. The widespread growth of computer technology and online financial transactions has made these crimes easier to commit and get away with. As a result, online accounts fraud is generally on the rise. Meanwhile, the development of new electronic surveillance technology and computer software has made it far easier to uncover the misdeeds of financial criminals.

With all of these factors influencing the accounting and auditing industries, we should expect to see continued growth in jobs demand in these areas. As a response, some accountants had been developing more sophisticated accounting systems, trying to provide more robust financial management and consulting services - in a far more advisory role. Meanwhile, federal legislation now limits the ways in which accountants can provide such management services, as consulting for the same client who you audit is fraught with opportunities and temptations for fraudulant bookkeeping. Meanwhile, accountants will still be able to consult on other financial issues for clients, as long as they are not publicly traded. They can do the same for nonaudit clients. Regardless, growth in these nontraditional financial areas will be slower than they have been in the past.