Forensic accounting practices and corporate transparency of commercial banks in South-South, Nigeria

This study investigated how forensic accounting relates with corporate transparency of the Commercial Banks in the South-South Nigeria while moderating the role of internal control quality. The study was motivated by the fact that financial irregularities and lack of credibility in the banking sector's report is a recurring problem in the Nigeria banking sector which also contributed to the declining stakeholder's confidence in the banking sector. The study was based on the theories of fraud triangle, agency and institutional theory. A cross-sectional research design and positivist philosophy was adopted. Using the Taro Yamane formula and multi-stage sampling technique, the total population of the study was 4,986 commercial bank employees in the selected banks in the South-South Nigeria and the sample size was determined to be 423 commercial bank employees. The structured questionnaires were used in the collection of primary data. Descriptive statistics, Spearman rank correlation co-efficient and partial correlation co-efficient at 0.05 level of significance were used for the data analysis. Results showed positive and significant relationship between litigation support services and expert witnessing with financial reporting quality. The findings of this study further revealed that the internal control quality has a significant and positive moderating effect on the link between Forensic accounting practices and corporate transparency. The study's findings were that the practices of forensic accounting would contribute to the improvement of quality of financial reporting and transparency of commercial banks. The study recommended that use of the forensic accounting system be encouraged in the Nigerian commercial banks as the existence of forensic accounting system, qualified expert witness and also the internal control mechanism in the banks are recommended.