The joint effect of ethical idealism and professional skepticism on the detection of auditor fraud (a case study of employees of the Audit Court)

Lawmakers have identified ethical lapses as a key factor in auditors' failure to detect fraud by their clients. Previous research has also identified ethical and skeptic traits as potential determinants of professional skepticism, defined as “audit judgments and decisions that reflect a strong assessment of the risk that an assertion is false”. Moral idealism reflects one's attitude toward the consequences of an action and how those consequences affect the well-being of others, while skepticism relates to one's willingness to obtain evidence before concluding that a claim is well-made. A person's moral and skeptic tendencies influence his or her cheating planning performance. Therefore, in the present study, the joint effect of moral idealism and professional skepticism on the detection of fraud by auditors of the Court of Accounts was investigated. The statistical population of the research was auditors in different ranks and positions from auditor to auditor general in the State Audit Office in the spring of 1402, and according to Cochran's sampling formula, the sample size was determined to be 269 people. Multivariate linear regression method was used to test research hypotheses. The findings indicate that firstly, moral idealism has a positive effect on fraud detection. Second, professional skepticism has a positive effect on fraud detection. Third, moral idealism and professional skepticism jointly have a positive effect on auditors' fraud detection.