مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد آنالیزی از خرابکاری صورت های مالی در میان شرکت های تولیدی – تیلور و فرانسیس 2022

Abstract

     We analyze the likelihood of financial statement manipulation among 19 listed manufacturing and trading firms on the Ghana Stock Exchange for the period 2008 to 2017. We use the Beneish model to group the firms into those likely to engage in financial statement manipulation and those not likely to be involved in financial statement manipulation. Generally, the results show that majority of the firms are likely to be involved in financial statement manipulation. Also, we find that profitability, liquidity, financial leverage, change of audit firm, and the overall economic condition (Z-score) are firm-level factors that predict the likelihood of financial statement manipulation among listed manufacturing and trading firms in Ghana. Given the high number of manufacturing and trading firms likely to engage in financial statement manipulation, there is the need for the managers of the Ghana Stock Exchange to subject future financial reports of these firms to rigorous scrutiny to safeguard the interest of their stakeholders.

Introduction

     Three objectives drive this study. First, the study seeks to detect the likelihood of financial statement manipulation1 among listed firms in Ghana using the Beneish (1999) model. Second, it examines whether financial ratios characteristics differ among firms that are likely to engage in financial statement manipulation and those not likely to manipulate their financial statements. Third, it determines the financial ratios2 that predict the likelihood of financial statement fraud.

     The fundamental purpose of corporate financial reporting is to provide the actual state of affairs of an entity to its stakeholders. The rationale is that users of financial reports found their economic decisions on information contained in such reports (Kanapickienė & Grundienė, 2015). It is for this reason that financial statement fraud is considered a serious legal and ethical issue in accounting practice. In this study, financial statement fraud is defined as any act of omission or misstatement deliberately done or committed by a firm in its financial reporting that distorts the entity’s real state of affairs. This definition, to a considerable extent, dovetails into that of Apostolou, Hassell, and Webber (2000), who define corporate financial fraud as the “intentional misrepresentation of amounts or disclosures in the financial statements” (p.181).

Conclusion

     The research seeks to detect financial statement manipulation among 19 listed manufacturing and trading firms in Ghana using the Beneish model and financial ratios. The study covers 2008 to 2017 fiscal years. We use a probit regression technique to predict the probability of a listed manufacturing and trading firm engaging in corporate financial fraud. The results demonstrate that the majority of listed manufacturing and trading firms are likely to engage in financial statement manipulation. The study, therefore, concludes that financial statement manipulation may be prevalent among listed manufacturing and trading firms in Ghana. Again, sales to fixed assets ratio (SAL/FA), total debt to total assets ratio (TD/TA), earnings before interest and tax to sales ratio (EBIT/ SAL), gross profit to sales ratio (GP/SAL), cost of sales to sales ratio (COS/SAL), working capital to total assets (WC/TA), current assets to current liabilities (CA/CL) and Z-score are the financial ratios that differ significantly between firms likely to engage in corporate financial statement fraud and those not likely to do so. A probit regression analysis has shown that profitability, overall financial condition, liquidity ratios as well as a change of their external auditors predict the likelihood of listed manufacturing and trading firms getting involved in financial statement manipulation.