The Journal of Forensic Accounting Profession

The Influence of Personal, Professional, Legal, and Cultural Factors on the Application of the Code of Ethics in the Accounting Profession

Benina Veledar, Amra Gadžo, Lejla Jašarević — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines the factors influencing the ethical conduct of accountants and auditors in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), focusing on four key dimensions: personal interests and motives, work experience and professional competence, legal protection and market factors, and moral attitudes and the cultural environment, including religion and social norms. The research was conducted on a sample of 89 accountants and auditors using a structured questionnaire based on a five-point Likert scale. Respondents expressed their views on various aspects of ethical behaviour within the profession. Parametric statistical methods, the Z-test and Repeated Measures ANOVA, were employed to test the hypotheses. The results suggest that the cultural environment, including national customs and social norms, exerts a stronger influence on the ethical behaviour of accountants and auditors than religious beliefs. The study provides empirical evidence on the relative importance of different factors shaping ethical behaviour in the accounting and auditing profession, with particular emphasis on the role of culture as opposed to religion.

(Previously published on Sciendo: https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/jfap-2025-0006, under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Benford’s Law in the Forensic Analysis of Cash Flow Statements of Business Entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Lejla Demirović, Ševala Isaković-Kaplan, Nejla Smječanin — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines the application of Benford’s Law in the forensic analysis of cash flow statements of business entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through empirical research, the following hypotheses were tested: increasing and decreasing items in cash flow statements follow Benford’s Law, and there is no statistically significant difference in the first-digit distribution between increasing and decreasing items. The results show that decreasing items follow Benford’s Law, while increasing items exhibit statistically significant deviations. Additionally, for most digits, no statistically significant difference was found between increasing and decreasing items, except for the digit 3. The findings indicate the need to educate auditors about the application possibilities of Benford’s Law, as well as its wider use with the aim of reducing audit costs and increasing audit efficiency.

(Previously published on Sciendo: https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/jfap-2025-0007, under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Forensic Aspects of Tax Evasion

Anida Jagodić — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In today’s dynamic and turbulent business environment, forensic accounting plays a key role in identifying tax evasion, particularly from a behavioral perspective — that is, in situations where accountants are exposed to internal organizational pressures. The aim of this research is to forensically identify organizational and individual factors that potentially contribute to the emergence or concealment of tax irregularities. The study was conducted through a survey of accountants employed in various organizations, who assessed their perception of organizational pressure, their own professional independence, and their ability to resist ethical challenges. The study found that financial incentives offered to accountants may increase the risk of concealing tax evasion, thereby complicating forensic detection of irregularities. The survey also revealed that employees are unable to influence the employer’s intention to minimize taxes without compromising their own job security, and that there are currently no effective policies or procedures in place to encourage and protect those who report actual or suspected illegal or unethical behavior.

(Previously published on Sciendo: https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/jfap-2025-0008, pod licencom CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

The Role of Continuous Professional Education in Improving the Quality of Accounting Services

Amra Salihović — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Continuous professional education (CPE) represents one of the key determinants of the quality of accounting services and a fundamental requirement of international education, quality management, and ethical standards governing the accounting profession. The aim of this paper is to examine, based on a theoretical review and empirical results from the pilot project of quality control of the members of the Association of Accountants, Auditors and Financial Employees of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), the role of CPE in enhancing the quality of professional accounting services. The paper provides an overview of the regulatory framework in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the Law on Accounting and Auditing, the Rulebook on Quality Control of the Association’s Members, the Quality Control Methodology, and the International Education Standards (IES), particularly IES 5 and IES 7 (International Federation of Accountants [IFAC], 2019a, 2019b). The empirical part of the paper is based on data derived from forms K-2A, K-2B and K-3A, which include preliminary and final assessments of the quality of work performed by supervised entities. The results indicate a significant relationship between the planning and implementation of continuous professional development programmes and the overall quality ratings achieved. Entities with a higher level of CPE exhibited greater compliance with internal control requirements, higher consistency in the application of procedures, and better adherence to regulations on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing. This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the importance of CPE in the context of stability and professionalisation of the accounting profession and provides recommendations for further improvement of the quality control system and approaches to professional education.

(Previously published on Sciendo: https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/jfap-2025-0009, under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

The three faces of a digital attack

Jadranka Stojanovic — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In the modern digital age, the boundaries between crime, terrorism and hacktivism in cyber space are becoming increasingly blurred. Although the usual elements of violence, political motivation, threat and fear provide a line of continuity that runs through the long and complex history of terrorism, it should also be taken into account that technological innovation has created a new form of terrorism. In recent years, the matter of “cyber” terrorism has become very interesting, as a kind of form of computer crime. Cyber terrorism implies the use of information resources in the form of threats or blackmail in order to achieve a specific terrorist goal. In the focus of attention is the abuse of the Internet as the most important global communication network. The use of the Internet by terrorists can be threefold: as a weapon, as a means of communication between activists and as a medium for addressing the public. Precisely for these reasons, it is necessary to spread the culture of using computer technology, but attention should also be paid to the security culture. After an unsuccessful defense against a cyber attack, Internet forensics allows us to reconstruct the events in order to discover the attackers and their methods of operation. Given that it is an extremely complex matter, in the paper we also looked at the general determinants related to computer crime, computer terrorism and hacktivism.

(Previously published on Sciendo: https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/jfap-2025-0010, under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)