A research study on forensic accounting in the context of expert witness organization in Turkey

Recently encountered scandals in enterprises and auditing proved that the struggle can't be made by means of the current auditing system. While struggling, the old structure of auditing system is inadequate in both revealing and preventing financial crime which is effected by technological change and development. Furthermore, dealing with crimes which are on the increase due to technological opportunities in the global world, judical authorities and criminology researchers are inadequate. In this regard, a new auditing branch, called forensic accounting, emerged. In fact, this branch, considered as a new branch, which has become a current issue as a result of the fact that the current system limited its own responsibilities and hence the problems encountered are not be able to be solved is pre-exisiting. This branch is able to give services not only in the branch of fraud auditing but also in the branches of litigation support consulting and expert witness. In our reserach study, expert witness services which are given by forensic accountants is evaluated in context of expert witness organizations in our country. Our legal system make it possible using expert witness in courts under the conditions which require speciality and private or technical knowledge in order to quicken process and provide justice. However, in our country expert witness organization has a number of problems. In this research study, whether the problems of expert witness organizations include or do not include expert witnesses who are accountants. Whether the activities of forensic accountant as an expert witness that is not availiable in our country are done by expert witnesses who are accountants or not are evaluated and the necessity of forensic accountant branch in this field is determined. For this purpose, the questionaire is prepeared, aiming to evaluate the views of judges who benefit from expert witness that are accountants and the views of accountants who service expert witness. Within this scope, the questionnaire is applied to the judges and the accountants who are expert witnesses in İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir in which places civil lawsuits are intensity. Key Words: Forensic Accounting, Expert Witness Organizations, Litigation Support Consulting, Expert Witness, Investigative Accounting