The Effect Of Forensic Accounting Services On Corporate Crime Mitigation Among Listed Firms In The Nairobi Securities Exchange

Abstract

Kenya is leading the world in occupational fraud, a major corporate crime, with an incidence of 66%, which is about twice the global average of 34%. It is dominantly occurring in many governmental and non-governmental organisations especially those related with financial services most of which are listed in the NSE. These crimes are very difficult to detect, investigate, or even mitigate, and many managers in these institutions shy away from such endeavours due to the consequences the institutions would suffer after such exposures.The objective of this study was to examine the effect of forensic accounting services on corporate crime mitigation among listed firms in the NSE. The choice of the companies listed in the NSE is because they shift usage of money from less productive activities in the economy to more productive activities which translate to high profits. This profits make NSE companies a worthy target for corporate crime in terms of fraud hence the need to see the effect of forensic accounting in this companies and also due to proximity issues. The study adopted descriptive research design and primary data was used. The questionnaires were sorted and coded in the statistical package for social science (SPSS) software and descriptive statistics was also used to analyse data in form of frequencies, percentages, tables and diagrams. Findings from the study show that corporate crimes are minimized when forensic accounting services were employed. The main policy recommendation for the study was that internal controls need to be reviewed and rectified frequently as infrequent review may increase the fraud risk, as the fraudster can identify and exploit the weaknesses in internal control.