Forensic accountants, auditors and fraud capability and competence requirements in the Nigerian public sector

The foundation of this study is to examine the task performance fraud risk assessment (TPFRA) among forensic accountants and auditors in the Nigerian public sector. Most importantly, the study explored the role of fraud related problem representation (FRPR) as a mediator on the relationship between knowledge, skills and mindset (forensic accountant and auditor) and task performance fraud risk assessment.
Importantly, this research employed the second generation statistical analysis tools of
PLS-SEM and IBM SPSS. The ten out of fifteen hypotheses were tested through the use of PLS-SEM algorithm and bootstrap techniques on the hypothesized relationships while the remaining five hypotheses of differences among groups were tested using the Mann-Whitney U Test. The results provided verifiable support for the hypothesized relationships of the study. Specifically, knowledge, skills and
mindset (forensic accountant and auditor), and fraud related problem representation are significant and positively related to task performance fraud risk assessment. In addition, knowledge, skills and mindset (forensic accountant and auditor) are significantly and positively related to fraud related problem representation. Most gratifying is the significant positive influences of knowledge, skills and mindset and fraud related problem representation indicate that the variables are essential requirements in enhancing task performance fraud risk assessment. The research
findings provided support for the differences between groups (forensic accountants and auditors) hypotheses in the area of fraud detection, prevention and response. Importantly, forensic accountants have higher levels of knowledge (KR), skills (SR), mindset (MR), fraud related problem representation (FRPR), and task performance fraud risk assessment (TPFRA) than auditors. Therefore, accountants and auditors in the Nigerian public sector should be encouraged to acquire forensic accounting knowledge, skills, mindset, fraud related problem representation (i.e. capability
requirement) to enhance task performance fraud risk assessment (i.e. competences
requirement) in the workplace.