Examine the nature, causes, and major types of fraud and the auditor’s responsibilities for assessing fraud risk and designing procedures to detect it. Explore how internal controls and supervision help prevent fraud, and apply key forensic audit techniques for planning, fieldwork, data analysis, reporting suspected illegal acts, and supporting investigations. You’ll strengthen your ability to recognize potential fraud and respond appropriately.

Learn to think strategically and use analytical skills throughout the audit lifecycle. Using the Yellow Book and other auditing standards and resources as professional frameworks, you’ll explore how to move beyond performing individual audit tasks to effectively assess the organization and its processes and functions to identify potential risks, internal controls, gaps, and corrective actions to contribute to an improved operation going forward.

Examine how appropriations law impacts audit planning, evidence gathering, and conclusions about the use of federal funds. You’ll explore parts of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) Principles of Federal Appropriations Law (the Red Book) and the framework established by the generally accepted government auditing standards (GAGAS or the Yellow Book) to learn about the availability of federally appropriated funds and the three pillars—purpose, time, and amount. Learn how to apply these principles to evaluate compliance, identify violations, and protect public funds.