THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR PREVENTING AND DETECTING ACCOUNTING FRAUDS FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF SELF-REGULATORY AGENCIES IN TURKEY: DE JURE STATUS AND DE FACTO APPLICATION

TURKIYE’DE DUZENLEYICI KURULUŞLAR ACISINDAN MUHASEBE HILELERININ ONLENMESI VE ORTAYA CIKARILMASI SORUMLULUĞU: HUKUKI DURUM VE FIILI UYGULAMA Ozet: Duzenleyici kuruluslarin yaklasimi ve uygulamalari muhasebe hilelerinin onlenmesi ve ortaya cikarilmasi sorumlulugunun kapsaminin acikliga kavusturulmasina yardimci olabilmektedir. Bu kuruluslarin kamunun buyuk bir cogunlugunu adil ve yansiz bir sekilde temsil edecegi varsayilmaktadir. Ayrica aldiklari kararlar ve karar alma mantiklari hem arastirmacilara, hem de finansal bilgi kullanicilarina olasi hile suphelileri, bu kuruluslarin sorumlulardan ozellikle onlemesi ve ortaya cikarmasini istedikleri hile yontemleri, hilelerin cezai yonleri, hilelerin onlenmesi ve ortaya cikarilmasinda temel sorumluluklar ve denetim beklenti boslugu konularinda onemli ipuclari verebilmektedir. Yine bunlar ilgili standart, yasa ve diger duzenlemelerin olusturulmasi ve uygulanmasinda onemli etki sahibi olmaktadir. Bu nedenle, bagimsiz denetimle ilgili faktorleri de kapsayan bir dizi degisken ile muhasebe hileleri arasinda istatistiksel olarak anlamli bir iliski olup olmadigini sinayan bir calisma yapilmis ve sonuc olarak Turkiye’deki duzenleyici kurulusun muhasebe hilelerinin onlenmesi ve ortaya cikarilmasi sorumlulugunu ayni tarafa, musteri isletme ve yonetimine yukledigi bulunmustur. Arastirmanin bulgulari Turkiye’de bir denetim-beklenti boslugu olmadigina da isaret etmektedir. THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR PREVENTING AND DETECTING ACCOUNTING FRAUDS FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF SELF-REGULATORY AGENCIES IN TURKEY: DE JURE STATUS AND DE FACTO APPLICATION Abstract: Self-regulatory agencies’ way of understanding and practices can help clarify the scope of the responsibility for preventing and detecting frauds. They are assumed to represent a vast majority of the public in an unbiased and equitable manner. Moreover, their final decisions and their reasoning behind could give critical hints to both the researchers and financial information users about the probable suspects of frauds, the fraud schemes self-regulatory agencies particularly want the liable parties to prevent and detect the penal aspects of accounting frauds, the primary responsibilities for detecting and preventing frauds, and the audit expectation gap. Besides these authorities have a material impact on setting and implementing relevant standards, codes, and other regulations. Therefore a research study was conducted in order for testing whether there is a statistically significant relationship between a series of variables some of which involve auditing-related factors and accounting frauds, and it is consequently found out that the Turkish self-regulatory agency imposed the primary responsibility for both preventing and detecting frauds upon the same party, the client company and its management. The findings of the research might also imply the absence of an audit-expectation gap in Turkey.