Forensic Accounting in the Public Sector Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Internal Auditors, Public-Sector Accountants and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-FFC-018

Before you join: Participants should have practical familiarity with financial records, transaction processing, internal controls, audit work, compliance, procurement or investigations.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Public-sector fraud investigations carry consequences beyond direct financial loss. Weakly scoped enquiries, incomplete evidence trails, poor interview practice or unsupported findings can expose agencies, state-owned entities, municipalities and donor-funded programmes to legal challenge, reputational damage and continued misuse of public funds. Finance, audit and investigation professionals need methods that distinguish control failures from misconduct, test allegations fairly and produce findings that withstand scrutiny.

This course develops a structured approach to forensic accounting in public bodies. Participants examine fraud risks in procurement, payroll, grants, revenue collection, assets and emergency purchasing. They apply the ACFE Fraud Tree, COSO Internal Control Framework, financial statement analysis, journal-entry testing, duplicate-payment tests, data profiling, link analysis and Benford's Law. The course also covers investigation planning, evidence preservation, chain of custody, PEACE interviewing, loss quantification, allegation assessment and report writing.

Teaching combines focused technical briefings with realistic public-sector cases, group analysis, investigation simulations and facilitated review of evidence and financial data. Participants work through the stages of a forensic engagement: receiving an allegation, setting terms of reference, identifying relevant records, testing transactions, interviewing witnesses and reporting findings. Each participant leaves with a practical forensic investigation toolkit containing reusable templates for planning, evidence management, fraud-risk assessment, interview preparation, reporting and remediation.

The course is suited to professionals who already work with public finances, controls, audits, investigations or compliance matters and need stronger forensic accounting capability. It is particularly relevant where public procurement, payroll, grant funding, service delivery payments or asset management create exposure to fraud and corruption.

What you will be able to do

  • Scope forensic accounting engagements using defensible terms of reference and allegation matrices
  • Map public-sector fraud schemes using the ACFE Fraud Tree and process walkthroughs
  • Assess control weaknesses using COSO-based control matrices and red-flag registers
  • Preserve documentary and digital evidence through chain-of-custody and evidence-register procedures
  • Analyse financial and transactional data using ratio analysis, Benford's Law and exception testing
  • Conduct investigative interviews using the PEACE model, question plans and corroboration matrices
  • Prepare evidence-based investigation reports with loss quantification and remediation recommendations
  • Design case-management and quality-review procedures for public-sector forensic matters

Benefits of attending

For you

  • A repeatable method for scoping and managing suspected fraud investigations
  • Stronger ability to identify procurement, payroll, grant and asset-fraud indicators
  • Practical confidence analysing journals, invoices, payment files and supplier records
  • Interview planning skills that improve the reliability and fairness of witness evidence
  • Report-writing methods for presenting findings to audit committees and senior management

For your organisation

  • Earlier detection of irregular payments, conflicts of interest and control override
  • Better documented investigations that support disciplinary, recovery and referral decisions
  • More consistent fraud-risk assessment across procurement, payroll, grants and assets
  • Clearer remediation actions linked to root causes and identified control failures
  • Improved protection of public funds, donor funding and organisational credibility

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define a forensic accounting mandate and classify major public-sector fraud risks.

  • Public-sector accountability, stewardship and value-for-money duties shaping forensic mandates
  • Fraud triangle, fraud diamond and behavioural red flags in public bodies
  • ACFE Fraud Tree categories mapped to revenue, expenditure and assets
  • Materiality, public interest and proportionality when scoping suspected misconduct
  • Terms of reference defining allegations, authority, objectives, boundaries and reporting
  • Independence safeguards for investigators facing political, management or donor pressure

Participants can identify common fraud and corruption schemes affecting public resources.

  • Procurement fraud indicators: bid rigging, split purchases, conflicts and collusion
  • Payroll and benefits schemes involving ghost workers, overtime and allowances
  • Grant and aid diversion through fictitious beneficiaries and unsupported expenditure
  • Revenue leakage, cash skimming and unlawful fee-waiver arrangements
  • Asset misappropriation involving fuel, inventory, vehicles and disposal proceeds
  • Corruption typologies: bribery, kickbacks, facilitation payments and trading influence
  • Conflict-of-interest declarations tested against vendor ownership and related-party data

Participants can assess control design and operating failures that enable fraud.

  • Process walkthroughs identify control points, override routes and segregation failures
  • COSO Internal Control Framework applied to procurement and payment cycles
  • Control matrices link risks, preventive controls, detective controls and evidence
  • Red-flag registers rank anomalies by likelihood, impact and evidential value
  • Whistleblowing arrangements assessed for confidentiality, retaliation protection and case escalation
  • Control testing distinguishes design deficiencies from operating effectiveness failures
  • Management override risks assessed through journals, approvals and emergency procedures

Participants can plan investigations and preserve evidence in a defensible manner.

  • Investigation plans sequence allegations, hypotheses, sources, milestones and decision gates
  • Evidence preservation procedures protect originals, metadata, access logs and chain-of-custody
  • Chain-of-custody records document collection, transfer, storage, access and disposal
  • Digital evidence triage covers email, devices, enterprise systems and cloud repositories
  • Legal privilege, confidentiality and data-protection constraints considered before collection
  • Disclosure schedules distinguish relevant, sensitive, exculpatory and privileged material
  • Evidence registers connect each exhibit to allegation, source and reliability assessment

Participants can apply financial analysis techniques to identify suspicious transactions and reporting patterns.

  • Benford's Law screens invoice populations for unusual leading-digit distributions
  • Horizontal and vertical analysis identifies unexplained trends in public financial statements
  • Ratio analysis tests liquidity, payroll, procurement and revenue anomalies
  • Journal-entry testing targets manual postings, period-end adjustments and unusual users
  • Budget-to-actual variance analysis separates operational causes from possible manipulation
  • Duplicate-payment tests compare supplier, invoice, amount, date and bank-account fields
  • Related-party analysis links officials, suppliers, intermediaries and beneficial ownership

Participants can structure and test transaction data for fraud-related exceptions.

  • Data acquisition plans define fields, systems, owners, formats and extraction controls
  • Data profiling identifies missing values, duplicates, outliers and invalid code combinations
  • Entity resolution matches suppliers across spelling variants, addresses and bank accounts
  • Stratified sampling selects transactions using value, risk attributes and random selection
  • Exception queries detect sequential invoices, threshold splitting and weekend payments
  • Link analysis visualises relationships among employees, vendors, accounts and approvals
  • Reproducible analytics retain query logic, parameters, extracts and result logs

Participants can plan and evaluate interviews while corroborating accounts with independent evidence.

  • PEACE interviewing model structures preparation, rapport, questioning and account evaluation
  • Cognitive interviewing techniques improve recall without introducing contaminating assumptions
  • Question plans move from open prompts to specific evidential challenges
  • Admission assessment distinguishes corroborated facts from unsupported confessions or explanations
  • Interview notes, recordings and translations meet evidential and procedural requirements
  • Confrontation decisions weigh disclosure risks, subject rights and investigative objectives
  • Corroboration matrices test statements against documents, data and independent witnesses

Participants can investigate high-risk public expenditure and service-delivery transactions.

  • Bid-rigging patterns examined through pricing, bidder rotation and tender documentation
  • Contract variation analysis identifies scope inflation, unjustified extensions and duplicate billing
  • Beneficiary verification tests eligibility, identity, delivery and payment confirmation
  • Payroll analytics detect duplicate bank accounts, improbable overtime and terminated employees
  • Asset verification reconciles registers, physical counts, custody records and disposal approvals
  • Emergency procurement reviews test justification, competition exceptions and post-award controls
  • Donor-funded project expenditure traced from agreement terms to supporting evidence

Participants can present substantiated findings, calculate losses and recommend corrective actions.

  • Allegation matrices distinguish substantiated, unsubstantiated and inconclusive findings
  • Investigation reports separate facts, analysis, findings, limitations and recommendations
  • Quantification models calculate loss, avoided costs, recovery prospects and interest
  • Evidence-based language avoids speculation, bias, legal conclusions and unsupported attribution
  • Root-cause analysis uses five whys and control-failure mapping
  • Remediation plans assign owners, deadlines, controls, assurance and escalation
  • Recovery options cover civil action, disciplinary processes, insurance and referrals

Participants can manage forensic cases consistently and establish practical next actions for their workplace.

  • Case prioritisation models weigh public harm, loss value, evidence and urgency
  • Investigation case files maintain decisions, actions, evidence and review dates
  • Stakeholder protocols coordinate auditors, legal counsel, regulators and law enforcement
  • Quality reviews test allegation coverage, evidence sufficiency and report consistency
  • Lessons-learned reviews convert case findings into targeted control improvements
  • Personal application plans specify workplace risks, first actions and sponsor conversations
  • Professional ethics address confidentiality, objectivity, competence and due professional care

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Forensic investigation terms-of-reference template
  2. Public-sector fraud-risk and red-flag register
  3. Evidence register and chain-of-custody log
  4. Forensic data-testing query checklist
  5. PEACE interview planning and corroboration matrix
  6. Investigation report and remediation action-plan template

Who should attend

  • Internal Auditors — need to investigate suspected fraud beyond routine assurance work
  • Public-Sector Accountants — need to test transactions and explain financial irregularities
  • Fraud Investigators — need defensible methods for evidence, interviews and case files
  • Compliance Managers — need to assess corruption risks and strengthen reporting arrangements
  • Procurement Managers — need to identify collusion, conflicts and contract-payment irregularities
  • Finance Managers — need to detect control failures, quantify losses and support corrective action

Skills and tools covered

Fraud risk assessmentForensic data analysisEvidence managementInvestigative interviewingLoss quantificationForensic reporting

Tools and standards

ACFE Fraud Tree, COSO Internal Control Framework, PEACE Interviewing Model, Benford's Law

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish forensic accounting concepts, followed by case-based analysis of public-sector records, procurement files, payroll data and grant documentation. Participants assess allegations, build evidence trails, test transactions, interpret red flags and prepare investigation decisions in small groups. Simulated interviews and reporting discussions develop judgement around fairness, corroboration and defensible findings. Facilitated application planning helps participants adapt the templates and methods to their own agency, department or programme.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical familiarity with financial records, transaction processing, internal controls, audit work, compliance, procurement or investigations. They should be able to read general ledger extracts, invoices, payment records and basic financial statements. Prior exposure to public-sector financial procedures is useful, particularly in procurement, payroll, grants or asset management. No prior forensic accounting qualification, legal training, specialist data-analysis software experience or law-enforcement background is required. The course explains investigative methods and analytical techniques from an intermediate professional starting point.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should understand basic financial records, transactions and internal controls. Prior audit, accounting, procurement, compliance or investigation experience is useful, but no forensic accounting qualification or legal training is required.

Bring a laptop if attending classroom delivery, as it is useful for reviewing course materials and analytical examples. Participants may also bring anonymised descriptions of workplace fraud risks or control concerns for application planning.

The course suits internal auditors, accountants, fraud investigators, compliance managers, procurement professionals and finance managers working with public funds. It is also relevant to staff supporting donor-funded projects, state-owned entities and public service delivery programmes.

Fraud awareness courses focus mainly on recognising warning signs, while internal audit courses focus on assurance methodology. This course concentrates on forensic engagement planning, evidence handling, transaction testing, investigative interviews, loss quantification and formal findings.

Participants can use the templates to scope allegations, assess red flags, document evidence and plan transaction testing. The methods also support stronger referral decisions, clearer investigation reports and targeted control remediation.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30, providing about 6.5 contact hours. The five days progress from fraud risk and controls through evidence, data analysis, interviews, public-sector case types, reporting and workplace application.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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