| Abstract: | Accounting as a scientific and professional discipline represents a fundamental framework for monitoring, analyzing, and interpreting economic climate in companies. Accountants play a central role in this process, as through high professional standards and ethical conduct they ensure the legality, transparency, and reliability of accounting information. Their work requires well-developed personal characteristics, knowledge and skills that enable accurate, responsible and efficient performance of accounting tasks. In recent decades, global economic changes, rise in the volume of financial frauds and development of increasingly complex forms of money laundering have further highlighted the importance of accountants as key actors in detecting and preventing illegal activities. Since accountants have direct access to confidential accounting information, they bear a special responsibility for ensuring the lawful execution of business transactions and the timely identification of suspicious patterns. For the effective detection and prevention of money laundering, accountants must therefore possess appropriate personal characteristics, knowledge, and skills. In this master’s thesis, we examined which personal characteristics, knowledge, and skills accountants need for the effective detection and prevention of money laundering.
The master’s thesis consists of a theoretical and an empirical part. The theoretical part includes an introductory section presenting the research problem, purpose, objectives, research questions, assumptions and limitations, and research methods. This is followed by definitions of accounting, the role of the accountant, the legal and professional framework of accounting, and the personal characteristics, knowledge, and skills of accountants, followed by the definition of the concept of money laundering, including its process, typologies, legal basis, obligated entities, and their responsibilities. We then explain the personal characteristics, knowledge, and skills required of accountants for detecting and preventing money laundering, as well as the ethical dilemmas they face. In the empirical part, we investigated which personal characteristics, knowledge, and skills are considered by accountants in large Slovenian companies to be the most important for the effective detection and prevention of money laundering. The research was conducted using a questionnaire developed independently on the basis of findings from previous studies. The results were presented graphically and descriptively. The conclusion consists of the key findings derived from the analysis of the survey questionnaire and provides answers to the research questions posed.
The results of the empirical research showed that accountants in large Slovenian companies identify accuracy, professionalism, and attention to detail as the most important personal characteristics. In terms of knowledge, they attribute the greatest importance to fundamental accounting knowledge, understanding of financial and business processes, and knowledge of accounting standards. Among skills that were attributed the most importance by accountants are accounting and auditing skills, technical and analytical skills, and problem-solving abilities. At the same time, the research revealed that a large proportion of accountants in large Slovenian companies do not feel sufficiently trained to effectively prevent money laundering, indicating a need for additional and more systematic education, particularly in the areas of internal auditing, forensic accounting, and digital technologies. |
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