Detecting fraudulent financial statements in pharmaceutical companies: Fraud pentagon theory perspective

Abstract

A fraudulent financial statement is an issue that continues to be discussed as a form of deviation from corporate governance. Covid-19 pandemic has also demanded management to uphold the company's performance to have a good public image. Thus, the present study sets out to scrutinize the fraud pentagon theory on fraudulent financial statements. Each element is not able to be tested directly. However, there are proxies. The pressure element is proxied as a personal financial need. The opportunity is becoming the nature of industry. Each of the qualities of the external auditors as well as the change of directors propose rationalization and competence. The frequent number of CEO’s appearances in photos is a proxy of arrogance. The testing was carried out on the registered pharmaceutical companies of the Indonesian stock exchange in the span of the 2015-2019 period. The samples were selected by the means of sampling technique which is purposive. Data are scrutinized by the means of panel data regression. The analysis results show that the characteristics of the industry positively affects financial reports which are fraudulent. Changing top management positions such as directors can be an indication of financial reports which are fraudulent. The personal financial need variables, the caliber of external auditors and the quantity of CEO’s appearance in photos pose no effects on the fraudulent financial statements of the Indonesian's pharmaceutical companies.