Executive summary
Audits serve a fundamental purpose in promoting confidence and reinforcing trust in
financial information. The principal-agent relationship, as depicted in agency theory,
is important in understanding how the audit has developed.
Principals appoint agents and delegate some decision-making authority to them. In so
doing, principals place trust in their agents to act in the principals’ best interests. However,
as a result of information asymmetries between principals and agents and differing
motives, principals may lack trust in their agents and may therefore need to put in place
mechanisms, such as the audit, to reinforce this trust.