Master’s Degree Awarded to Mr. Emad Abdulmalik Al-Matari in Accounting

Mr. Emad Abdulmalik Ali Al-Matari was awarded a Master’s Degree in Accounting with an average of (Excellent) and a grade of (94%) for his thesis titled: The Impact of IT Governance on Mitigating Financial Statement Fraud in Yemeni Banks Based on COBIT 2019 Framework: A Field Study, which was submitted to the Faculty of Commerce and Economics – Sana’a University. The MA defense was held on Thursday, September 25, 2025.

The MA Viva-voce Committee, which was formed based on a resolution issued by the Graduate Studies and Scientific Research Council, consisted of the following:

#	Committee Members	Designation	University	Position
1	Assoc. Prof. Mohammed Hamoud Al-Samhi	External Examiner	Ibb University	Chair
2	Dr. Ibrahim Abdulqudus Mufadhal	Main Supervisor	Sana’a University	Member
3	Dr. Mohammed Saeed Al-Haj	Internal Examiner	Sana’a University	Member

The study aimed to identify the impact of IT governance on reducing fraud in financial statements in accordance with the COBIT 2019 framework, adopting the descriptive-analytical methodology.

The research yielded several findings summarized as follows:

IT governance, represented by the COBIT 2019 framework, had a highly significant positive impact on reducing financial statement fraud in Yemeni banks.
All dimensions of IT governance (planning and organization, acquisition and implementation, support and delivery, guidance and monitoring, and evaluation) significantly contributed to reducing fraud in financial statements, albeit with varying degrees of influence.
The study successfully addressed an important research gap by applying the COBIT 2019 framework to the Yemeni banking sector in studying the effect of IT governance on reducing financial statement fraud.

In light of these findings, the researcher proposed several key recommendations:

Yemeni bank administrations should give top priority to fully adopting and implementing the COBIT 2019 framework across all IT-related operations.
The Central Bank of Yemen should issue binding directives requiring banks and financial institutions to adopt the internationally recognized IT governance framework (COBIT 2019) and establish mechanisms for monitoring and ensuring compliance.
Banks should develop clear IT governance strategies aligned with their strategic objectives, along with strict and detailed security policies and procedures governing IT use and financial statement handling.
External auditors should incorporate IT governance evaluation within the scope of financial statement audits, to provide greater assurance regarding their reliability, fairness, and the bank’s ability to reduce financial fraud.
The Central Bank should publish and document discovered cases of financial statement fraud while preserving the confidentiality of sensitive data.

The defense session was attended by a number of academics, researchers, colleagues and the researcher’s family members.‎