The audit used to be an opinion on whether the accounts reflected a company’s financial position – now it is just compliance to increasingly complex standards.
The Chairman of the UK Auditing Practices Board, Richard Fleck CBE, gave a thought-provoking speech to a group of Chartered Accountants earlier this year. He suggested that the traditional audit had been de-professionalised and commoditised, and, coupled with the progressive deterioration of financial reporting into incomprehensibility, had contributed to a major loss of trust in the accounting profession. He called for a rethink as to the purpose of the audit and the type of experience an auditor should bring to the task. It prompted me to consider the audit and the role of the auditor in relation to our…
