Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 24 ISSUE 3
Written by Alina MARCUTA, Alina Cristina NUTA, Florian Marcel NUTA, Cristiana TINDECHE, Valentina Constanta TUDOR, Liviu MARCUTA

In this work, we proposed to analyze, starting from the existing accounting information in the financial statements, the way in which we can estimate the risk of manipulation of the financial information, by which companies. The research involved the study of specialized literature with the aim of identifying the opinions of specialists regarding the existence of this risk and the method of its identification. Starting from different models that use both financial information and non-financial information on the basis of which a score function is calculated, we carried out a case study in which, using the Beneish model, we assessed the risk of manipulation of accounting information in three listed companies on the stock market (which for reasons of confidentiality I marked with A, B and C, using the results published in the financial statements for the years 2022 and 2023. Based on the 8 indices of the Beneish model: the receivables turnover rate index at the figure of business, the gross commercial margin index, the asset liquidity rate index, the turnover growth index, the degree of depreciation of assets, the share of administration and marketing expenses in the turnover, accruals related to the exploitation activity and the financial leverage we calculated M-score, which allowed us to assess the degree of manipulation of the accounting information in the published financial statements. We thus found that by referring to the reference indices and the reference score proposed by Beneish (-1.78), a score updated compared to 1999, the year in which the value of the score function was determined for the first time, we found that for none of the analyzed entities we can states with certainty that they manipulated the reported information. However, in the case of companies B and C there are such indications, which requires additional analysis when the control bodies follow the reporting method.

[Read full article] [Citation]