Tactics: Common Questions-Evasion: Identify Ploys and Learn Methods to Get the Specific Answers You Need
Scott A. Emett, David Alvra Wood · Journal of accountancy online/Journal of accountancy · 2010
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * External and internal auditors and other practicing accountants, including forensic accountants, may face situations where an interviewee evades a question rather than providing an unequivocal answer. * Understanding the reasons for and ways in which individuals dodge questions can help accountants and auditors with limited interviewing experience prepare for and respond to situations where an interviewee is evasive. * One common tactic that interviewees use to avoid questions is to attack the interviewer. in this situation, interviewers must be bold and credible in their response to the attack while remaining tactful and respectful. * Attacking the question is another method of evasion, The interviewer needs to be an expert on the question at hand and explain to the interviewee why the question is relevant and important. * A respondent may sidestep a question by acknowledging without providing an answer, To help elicit a specific response, the interviewer should establish clear objectives for the interview and ensure that each of those objectives has been met by the end of the interview. * When a respondent declines to answer a question by indicating that he or she lacks the necessary knowledge or expertise to answer the question (when he or she really doesn't) or promising to on it (without intending to do so), the interviewer must hold the respondent accountable for the expertise or knowledge that is generally expected of someone in the interviewee's position or by following up on an interviewee's promise to work on getting an answer. * An interviewer should plan in advance for overly ambiguous and unreliable answers by knowing the specific information needed from the interview. ********** [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In her book Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower, Cynthia Cooper, WorldCom Inc.'s chief audit executive, details the discovery of a fraud that she was able to unravel, in large part, due to her interviewing skills. At a critical point in Cooper's investigation, Buddy Yates, WofldCom's general director of accounting, attempted to dodge questions about fraudulent accounting entries. Undaunted, Cooper immediately recognized the evasive answers and searched for a clearer explanation. Her polished interviewing skills are one of the principal reasons she was able to uncover the fraud at Worldcom. External auditors, internal auditors, and many other practicing accountants, including forensic accountants, face situations similar to Cooper's: Interviewees evade answering a question rather than give an unequivocal answer. Most entry-level accountants and auditors would benefit by gaining a deeper understanding of why interviewees evade questions, learning common tactics interviewees use to avoid questions, and discovering methods to get answers when interviewees dodge questions. REASONS PEOPLE AVOID QUESTIONS Although evading a question could certainly indicate that someone is concealing fraud, many people avoid questions for other, innocuous reasons. Interviewees may avoid answering a question because they do not know the answer and, feeling embarrassed, want to avoid appearing unqualified. Others evade questions when they feel that their answer may have negative repercussions on their reputation, such as in cases where they have made a mistake. In other cases, an interviewer may believe that an interviewee is avoiding a question when the person simply did not fully understand the question or clearly explain the answer. Whatever the reason for evading questions, there are strategies that can help interviewers identify whether someone is evading a question and address the interviewee's tactic. How PEOPLE AVOID QUESTIONS AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT People evade questions in a number of ways, and an interviewer's response should vary with the type of tactic used. …