Forensic Accountant / Expert Witness – Litigation Ledger Reconciliation (Australia)

I am seeking an experienced forensic accountant with litigation/expert-report experience to independently examine and reconcile an Owners Corporation account that is the subject of ongoing Australian court proceedings.

The key issue is that multiple accounting records have been produced for the same account which appear to show different balances for the same dates. A spreadsheet/ledger relied upon in earlier proceedings also appears not to reconcile with accounting records produced before and after it.

I require an independent forensic examination rather than advocacy for either party.

Scope of work:

Examine approximately 6–8 versions of ledgers/account statements relating to the same Owners Corporation account.
Reconcile the different versions against the underlying transactions and source documents.
Identify and explain instances where different balances are recorded for the same date.
Determine whether differences can be explained by legitimate adjustments, journal entries, payments or other accounting entries.
Reconcile levy charges, payments, interest, legal costs, credits and adjustments.
Examine whether any amounts already paid continued to be carried as outstanding.
Examine the spreadsheet/ledger relied upon in the original court proceeding and determine whether it reconciles with the contemporaneous accounting records before and after that proceeding.
Identify duplicate, unexplained, unsupported or mathematically inconsistent entries.
Where the records permit, calculate the properly reconcilable balance at relevant dates.
Clearly identify any matters that cannot be reconciled from the available records and what further source documents would be required.

Deliverables:

Independent written forensic accounting report suitable for consideration in Australian court proceedings.
Reconciliation schedule showing each version of the account and discrepancies between them.
Transaction-level working papers/calculations.
Schedule identifying unexplained differences, duplicate entries, payments, interest and adjustments.
Source-document/index schedule identifying the documents relied upon.
Clear explanation of methodology and conclusions.
Availability to provide an expert report compliant with the applicable Australian expert-witness requirements and, if subsequently required, give evidence.

The accountant must remain independent and base all conclusions solely on the accounting records and supporting documentation.

Preferred experience:

CA/CPA or equivalent professional accounting qualification, with demonstrated forensic accounting and litigation-support experience.

Experience preparing expert reports for Australian courts is strongly preferred. Experience with Owners Corporation/strata accounting, levy ledgers, interest calculations and litigation accounts would be particularly useful.

Please provide:

professional qualifications;
forensic accounting experience;
Australian expert-witness/report experience;
examples of similar reconciliation work (without breaching client confidentiality);
hourly rate and/or fixed-price estimate;
estimated turnaround time for an initial review; and
whether you would be available to give expert evidence if ultimately required.

Important: This engagement is initially to determine whether the various versions of the account can be independently reconciled. I am not seeking a predetermined conclusion.