TFL Vsebine / Revija SIR*IUS

V današnjem času moramo vsi razmišljati o tveganjih pri uporabi računovodskih izkazov. V tujini že dlje časa pri odkrivanju nepravilnosti v računovodskih izkazih uporabljajo test po Benfordovem zakonu. Benfordov zakon je zelo preprosta, objektivna in učinkovita digitalna analiza, ki lahko pomaga odkriti sporna področja. Čeprav so hoteli nekateri Benfordov zakon prikazati za neučinkovit način pri ugotavljanju dejanskega stanja, je Nigrini dokazal, da je Benfordov zakon uporaben pri ugotavljanju prevar. Ker je v Sloveniji njegova uporaba še dokaj neznana in v praksi redko uporabljena, smo preverili, ali računovodskih izkazi slovenskih podjetij, ki kotirajo na Ljubljanski borzi vrednostnih papirjev, prenesejo test Benfordovega zakona. Analizo smo izvedli v Excelu, pri čemer smo ugotovili, da se testirani podatki dobro ujemajo s teoretično porazdelitvijo po Benfordovem zakonu. V celotnem sklopu proučevanih podjetij test po Benfordovem zakonu ne kaže nobene nepravilnosti, saj so odstopanja med teoretično in pričakovano porazdelitvijo podatkov minimalna. Tudi v Sloveniji bi bilo smiselno in koristno uporabljati Benfordov zakon kot pomoč pri odkrivanju prevar oziroma nepravilnosti pri prikazovanju podatkov. Če je odmik analiziranih podatkov od teoretične porazdelitve zelo velik, to še ne pomeni, da gre za prevaro. Benfordov zakon nam pomaga prepoznati sporna področja, ki zahtevajo našo pozornost in odločitev, kako nadaljevati revizijo ali morebitno preiskavo računovodskih podatkov.

Nowadays we all need to think about the risks in the financial statements. In many countries, Benford's law tests have been used for detecting irregularities in financial statements for a long time. Benford's law is very simple, fair and efficient digital analysis that can help detect problem areas. While some wanted to present Benford's law as an inefficient way to establish the facts, Nigrini proved that Benford's law is useful in identifying fraud. Since its application is still relatively unknown and has been seldom used in practice in Slovenia, we checked whether the financial statements of Slovenian companies listed on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange withstand the Benford's law test. The analysis was performed in Excel, and we found that the tested data followed the theoretical distribution according to Benford's law. Over the entire set of the studied companies, the Benford's law test did not show any irregularities, since the difference between the theoretical and the expected distribution of data was minimal. It would be reasonable and useful to use Benford's law also in Slovenia as an aid for the detection of fraud and irregularities in the presentation of data. If the deviation of analysed data from the theoretical distribution is very large, that does not necessarily indicate fraud. The Benford's law helps us identify problem areas that require our attention and decision how to proceed with the audit of or investigation into the financial data.