The roles of an Auditor in Discovering Illegal Acts Essay

The roles of an Auditor in Discovering Illegal Acts - Essay Example This essay discusses that when implementing SAS no. 99, auditors often find themselves in a complex arena of systematic approaches to detecting fraud. Most often, the auditing process fails due to barriers which escalate from the auditor’s ability to uncover fraud accurately. Such problems often involve inadequate characteristics of professionalism. Such barriers revolve around the auditor’s accounting profession of independent accounting with regard to experience, training, skills and education. Primarily, expectations gap form a complex barrier in the ability of an auditor to uncover frauds at costs that are reasonable. For instance, the actual practices that an auditor is capable of may be far away from the expectations of the stakeholders. In such cases, stakeholders presume auditors as being faults. More so, regulatory and legal impediments are barriers that auditors face. The present audits are also characterized by limits that guide the extent to which auditors c an uncover reasonably. The limitations are not often aligned with auditing standards for the methods of auditing are limited while the audit is constrained by cost. Furthermore, these barriers emanate from educational issues of the auditor. Education of the auditor will enable him or her to acquire skills and experience while he or she undergoes training in his or her profession. The vice versa cannot be true. More so, the communication between the auditor and the company’s management can be a substantial barrier especially when communication barriers come from the auditor’s side.... The Role Played by the Setting of Objectives in Auditing Planning for an audit process is highly significant for the success of the process as a whole. Setting of objectives prior to conducting an audit provides a clear framework that guides the audit process as it is in progress. First of all, setting of objectives places the auditor in a position of the person who inquires on fraud issues. The auditor acquires first hand knowledge given that he or she can get vital information from the internal workforce on the people who were involved in fraud. Ramos (35) asserts that; those people who have significant information on the individuals concealing and committing fraud, have always said that they would give out the information, but they were not asked. Hand in hand, the objectives enable the auditors to visualize risks as well as respond to them accordingly. This implies that; the setting of objectives creates a clear guideline for conducting the audit process, and it sums up to the su ccess of the audit process. Significant steps can be taken to ensure that the objectives of the audit are met consistently. Prior to the conduction of an audit, the auditors should have a proper internalization of fraud as an aspect. They should have the awareness and a better understanding of fraud. Besides, they should be familiar to risks that are attached to auditing and the necessary steps for mitigating them. For instance, auditors should have adequate information necessary for identifying the risks attached to misstatement of material as a result of fraud. They should also have the capacity of assessing those risks after post-evaluation of the entity’s controls and programs. More so, the auditors should be bold enough to have a timely response

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) - Essay Example Just because a person carries out ritualistic actions or worries once in a while does not necessarily mean that he/she suffers from OCD. It is important to remember that a behavior is considered a disorder only when it starts to interfere with one's daily life - consuming every aspect of it and impairing a person's ability to perform regular functions (e.g., working, establishing good interpersonal relationships). A mother who double checks her child's safety belt more than once before starting her car does not automatically suffer from OCD just because a behavior was repeated. In contrast, an OCD patient may spend between hours to even an entire day worrying about something and/or thinking of ways to prevent bad things from occurring. Although OCD patients are aware that their lives are being disrupted, they have difficulty controlling these disruptive thoughts and behaviors ("Obsessive Compulsive Disorder", 2005). They know that these thoughts and actions are not normal but they cannot stop them. This is what differentiates these types of repetitive thoughts and actions from regular rituals that people perform to ensure order, cleanliness, and safety (e.g., checking for locked doors, arranging files alphabetically for easier access). There is a desire from the person to rid himself of these thoughts and behaviors, but this desire is overruled by his obsessions and compulsions. According t According to the American Psychiatric Association's Fact Sheet on OCD (2005), some symptoms may include but are not limited to the following: cleaning, such as repetitive bathing or inability to hold door knobs; arranging and organizing, wanting everything in a particular order all the time; mental compulsions, such as silently saying phrases or prayers to self; hoarding and collecting various items such as magazines and newspapers, forming piles; and repeated checking, possibly retracing driving routes. Foa and Steketee (as cited in Hilgard, 1953) discovered that the most common compulsions among the list are washing and checking. Almost always, these actions are carried out because of doubt. OCD patients always think that something bad will happen and do not to rely on their senses alone. At the back of their minds, they believe that there are always things that they cannot see (or foresee). For example, a person with OCD may always believe that germs are always there despite repeated washing, or he may think that he forgot to switch an appliance off even after checking the switch numerous times. Rachman & Hodgson as well as Stern & Cobb concluded that these patients are concerned mostly about: completing tasks, preventing harm (self and others), and contracting illness from germs (Hilgard, 1953). In the film "As Good As It Gets," Jack Nicholson's character is a good example of a patient suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. He repetitively washes his hands, each time with a different bar of soap. It takes a long time for him to finally cease this hand-washing session. His cabinets were filled with an unending supply of soaps to accommodate this compulsion. Although seemingly extreme, many OCD patients exhibit behaviors that are beyond normal (perhaps even more pronounced than in this example), which shows that the disorder may really become an impediment to normal functioning, especially when the rituals take over most of their time and effort, robbing them of time to do