Whilst agency theory might speak of an inherent lack of trust in agents (whether they are
directors or auditors) we know that in the context of UK companies, some financial
information provided to shareholders remains unaudited. Shareholders must clearly have
some trust in directors to accept this information or must believe that the benefits resulting
from an audit in these areas would not outweigh the costs. One clear example of
unaudited information is the reporting under the Combined Code on corporate
governance where auditor reporting is restricted to a few aspects of the Code. Hence, there
must be non-audit solutions that help to maintain trust.
To attempt to address the complexities highlighted in this paper, there needs to be clear
articulation and understanding of the purpose of an audit and an alignment of interests.
On the same note, these different interests have implications for the use of global and
principle-based standards on auditing. If there is no consistent and agreed purpose of an
audit then difficulties arise when trying to develop, maintain and apply a global set of
universally accepted auditing standards. This also impacts on audit reporting. In the UK,
audit reports provide an opinion to existing shareholders as a body on the substance and
form of the information presented. However, such reports might not reflect the purpose of
an audit in the eyes of other stakeholders who have different expectations.