When a forensic accountant is hired to provide a valuation, it is important for them to remain
objective, demonstrate professional care, and maintain integrity in performance of the
engagement. As forensic accountants give their expert evidence on the day or days of the
trial, They must utilize their investigative, accounting, and auditing skills to ascertain the
truth of events as detailed in the financial statements. They calculate and quantify the loss,
they examine the disagreements in company acquisitions, and they study the business
violations that have occurred due to such losses and disagreements.
b b b b b b b b b b A Forensic accountant must provide professional care to their clients. According to
the AICPA’s Code of professional conduct, “The quest for excellence is the essence of due
care. Due care requires a member to discharge professional responsibilities with competence
and diligence. It imposes the obligation to perform professional services to the best of a
member's ability with concern for the best interest of those for whom the services are
performed and consistent with the profession's responsibility to the public” (AICPA, 2013,
ET Section 56.01). Integrity is vital for a forensic accountant. For one to have integrity, they
must possess the “quality from which the public trust derives and the benchmark against
which a member must ultimately test all decisions. Integrity requires a member to be, among
other things, honest and candid within the constraints of client confidentiality. Service and
the public trust should not be subordinated to personal gain and advantage. Integrity can
accommodate the inadvertent error and the honest difference of opinion; it cannot
accommodate deceit or subordination of principle” (AICPA, 2013, ET Section 54.01/.02).
Objectivity has similar traits in which the professional has the obligation to be impartial,
intellectually honest, and free of conflicts of interest. Should he or she be in violation of
those 3 principles, then there is no way to maintain true objectivity.
b b b b b b b b b b It is no surprise that the forensic accountant’s expert witness testimony will carry
significant weight in the coming trial. While they were hired by the firm, they have a duty to
remain objective and behave with integrity and independence. This means that all data will
be factually based, backed up with significant data, and be as unimpeded by bias as possible.
For the expert witness, it doesn’t matter what the end result of the trial is, only that they are
operating under good faith and accurate information.
References
• https://us.aicpa.org/content/dam/aicpa/research/standards/codeofconduct/downloadabl
edocuments/2013june1codeofprofessionalconduct.pdf
• Federal Evidence Review. Federal Rules Of Evidence (2015) | Federal Evidence
Review. (n.d.). Retrieved February 6, 2023, from
https://web.archive.org/web/20180831001530/http://federalevidence.com/rules-of-
evidence
