Forensic Accounting and Integrated Financial Reporting of Banks using Hausman

This study examined forensic accounting and integrated financial reporting of listed banks in Ghana. The study aimed to examine forensic accounting effects on the integrated financial reporting of the listed banks. Its specific objectives determined the impact Litigations, Claims, Fraud cases reported, Cost of forensic investigation and Non-performing loans (LCFCN) have on integrated financial reporting variables such as corporate social responsibility – CSR. Integrated financial reporting (IFR) is the dependent variable while forensic accounting (FA) is the independent variable. In line with these stated objectives, five research questions and five hypotheses were formulated and it adopted the ex-post facto research design. The population of study constitutes 24 listed banks in Ghana, only 8 listed banks was selected through a purposive sampling. The data for the study was purely secondary and sourced from related books of the banks via Central Banks bulletin (Ghana), African financials and banks reports for a period of 16years from 2004-2020. Moreover, data were analyzed using the descriptive statistics, the Shapiro -Wilk test for a diagnostic check for normality and a combination of the panel regression analysis with the Hausman test which aided appropriately specification whether the analysis should be done with a fixed effect or random effect model of which the fixed effect was used for the interpretation at (P 0.050 < 0.10). In nations analyzed, the results among others demonstrated that forensic accounting and integrated financial reporting were statistically significant at 1%, 5%, and 10% as claims is positive and have significant effect on CSR (β = 64687.53, P<0.10); Non-performing loans is statistically significant and had a negative effect on CSR (β = -2.934, P= 0.054 @ 0.10). The study hence concludes that the effective implementation of forensic accounting had a constructive and significant effect on the integrated financial reporting of listed banks in Ghana. The study recommends among others that the apex banks should mandate banks to incorporate forensic accounting when reassessing their employability skill set, report production, debt administration and management, and portray fairness virtue in their reporting system so as to attract more investment and positive public image.