The Impact Of External Auditors On The Financial Position Of The Company

1- Independence: - The internal auditor should have the independence in terms of organizational status and personal objectivity which permits the proper performance of his duties.

An auditor’s role in an audit is very important. An auditor must be able to collect enough evidence to supports their finding, and also be on the lookout for fraud. Company’s may or may not know the law, but it is the job to know the law, and be able to educate and report findings properly. Since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, there have been provisions that have directly affected auditors. This paper will include the details of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, how ethics and independence have affected auditors, as well implementation of new standards based on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

There are numerous threats to the independence of auditors which have been identified in the multiple studies and discussions both in Australia (such as the Ramsay report, CLERP 9 Paper) and internationally by IFAC, the European Commission

13. The ethical concept of independence means that an accountant employed: 
a. By a corporation cannot prepare financial statements for use by the company 's bank.
b. By one company cannot work part-time for another company.
C. By an auditing firm cannot own any stock in the company being audited.
d. By one company cannot accept a job with another company in the same industry.

Chapter 2 2.54 Independence a. Independence in fact relates to the auditors’ “state of mind” and reflects an unbiased and impartial perspective with respect to the financial statements and other information they audit. Independence in appearance relates to others’ (particularly financial statement users’) perceptions of the auditors’ independence. The two general types of relationships that compromise auditors’ independence are financial

An auditor needs independence to perform an unbiased audit. According to Iain Gray and Stuart Mason, an audit is an informed opinion, based on truthful and fair information provided by the interested party whom should be independent of the preparer/auditor (21). Based on this definition, an auditor must self-distance from the subject of the audit. An auditor must refrain to engage in other roles within the management of the company that is audited, in order to avoid intentional or unintentional interference, which consequently could jeopardize the independence of the auditor’s

Independence is considered to be one of the most discussed in accounting literature and is considered to be comprised of two parts (Humphrey, 2008). The first is organizational independence which refers to the auditors willingness to comply with professional standards (Guenin-Parcini, Malsh, Tremblay, 2015). The second aspect

Auditors should be independent of the client. Independent auditors have no incentives to aid the entity in presenting their results

According to ICAEW, auditor independence mainly refers to the independence of the external auditor from parties that have an interest in the financial statements of the business being audited. It requires having both integrity and an objective manner to the auditing process. In order for the concept to be deemed effective the auditor needs to carry out their work freely. One of the main purposes of auditing is to increase credibility of the entity’s’ financial statements, as they have expressed their own professional opinion on the truth and fair view in accordance with the proper accounting standards used. This is only possible if the audit is made with reasonable assurance that it has come from an independent source and has not been influenced by other parties, such as managers, directors or by conflict of interest.

Literature Review. The author used a systematic review of literature in the research. The researcher examined studies of Gill and Cosseral (1996), The Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, and Guidance Note on Independence of Auditors to analyze the word “independence” in depth. The author stated that the term might bring a lot of confusion (p. 307). The term should emphasize that the professional is free from financial relationships.

External auditors are responsible for ensuring a company’s financial statements are free from material misstatement. These individuals work to provide comfort and reliability to third parties, such as investors or creditors, who may rely on a company’s financial performance. As such, auditors must objectively perform audits in a systematic and consistent manner to limit the risk of material misstatement and false representation. However, to conduct an effective audit, extensive planning and supervision is necessary, as defined under the first auditing standard of field work under the Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS) created by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) (find source). This standard states that “the

Internal auditors cannot effectively provide an analysis on the company’s internal dealings as they are part of the company. External auditors, however, can observe these processes from the outside and then determine where the funds of the company and whether the dealings adhere to the regulations. Using external auditors in a company prevents conflict of interest from happening. Conflict of interest is a situation where an individual or organization has multiple interests and of those multiple interests, one could possible corrupt the motivation for an act on the other when the auditor has any kind of beneficial interest in their client’s performance. In other circumstances, there is also the threat of familiarity where auditors become

Since reliable financial information is essential for investors and other stakeholders to take adequate decisions, this reliability must be backed by independent review performed by independent and certified auditing firms, which are supposed to verify and certify financial statements issued by a company’s management. If the auditor is not competent and independent from management, the audit of the financial statements loses its credibility (Schelker, 2013, p.295). According to Impastato (2003), because of audit failures, accountants are to blame for investors losing billions of dollars in earnings in addition to market capitalization (as cited in Grubbs & Ethridge 2007).

The lack of independence for external auditors will lead to the neglect of auditing risks (William R.K., 2003), which are the main reasons for the failure of certified accountants and professional accounting organizations. The consequence of the external auditors deprived of independence would be very serious. And there are many cases, which aroused by the failure of external auditors and most are related to the lack of independence. One famous example is the bankruptcy of Enron and the role played by its external auditor, Arthur Andersen (Todd, S., 2003). Arthur Andersen was once one of the biggest accounting companies in the world, and was canceled for the involvement in the Enron bankruptcy scandal.

The role of internal audit is to provide independent declaration that an organization’s threatadministration, governance and internal control processes are functioning effectively. Internal auditors deal with concerns that are essentially important to the existence and success of any organization. Unlike external auditors, they aspect beyond financial possibilities and statements to reflect wider problems such as the organization’s reputation, development, its power on the location and the approach it treats its organizations.In summary, internal accountantssupport organizations to thrive.