The corporate financial scandals that occurred at the beginning of this century in the
US and other developed countries have underlined the need for immediate reforms.
These changes are in response to the desire for better protection of investors, a higher
quality of information (in terms of accuracy and timeliness) for the financial markets, as
well as greater accountability and control over the actions taken by corporate executives
and auditing firms. Regulatory measures have also been intended to reinforce the role
of auditors in the audit of publicly listed companies, particularly with regard to auditor
independence and internal control over financial reporting (see Chapters 7 and 11 for
further discussion). Uncertainty and ambiguity raise a number of issues and this is why
the recent revelations of corporate abuses in the US have even led many to question the
usefulness of the audit as an efficient control instrument.
The effect of the above determinant factors on the audit function and its environment
has sometimes been immediate, such as enhancing the role of regulators in scrutinizing
the audit market, restrictions in providing assurance services by accounting firms and
higher regulators’ demand for auditor independence and objectivity. The audit market
will certainly be the scene of changes in different areas, particularly in real-time reporting,
continuous auditing, audit scope, internal control and perhaps more direct involvement
of auditors in investing and lending decision-making processes, and/or at least more concentration
on ‘user-chosen information’.
For this reason, moves have been made to prohibit the provision of audit and nonaudit
services rendered simultaneously by an auditing firm to a publicly listed company,
to make audit rotations mandatory and to strengthen corporate governance in general. It
is regrettable that suspicion has fallen on the profession as a community and on specific
firms. The audit and accounting profession has suffered greatly from these abuses and this
has even led to questioning of the usefulness of audited accounting data as a sound basis
for financial assessments and evaluations by investors, bankers, financial analysts, regulators
and other users.