Flint claims that the ‘primary condition’ for an audit is that there must be a relationship of accountability* between two parties arising explicitly by agreement or by some form of construction. This formulation is certainly an advance on Mautz and Sharaf and connects Flint’s thinking to that of agency theory. But whereas agency theory views the role of the auditor in an economically reductive way as a monitoring cost between two parties, Flint emphasizes the ethical as well as the economic dimension of audit practice. The auditor is not merely an economic agent but has a moral mission which must somehow be safeguarded – whether by regulation or otherwise. Although Flint considers the ‘economic or social benefit’ of the audit process, in contrast to agency theory, he regards this as a ‘postulate’ rather than an open empirical question.
(Michael Power, 1990: 72)