The sovereign debt crisis has illustrated the dire consequences of insufficient transparency and accountability of governments and poor public finance management and reporting.
Governments are not risk-free and the failure of fiscal management in the public sector has an economic impact that will far exceed the impact of losses incurred by corporate failures.
This jeopardizes both the interests of the public as well as investors.
Responding to Non-compliance with Laws and Regulations is an international ethics standard for auditors and other professional accountants. It sets out a first-of-its-kind framework to guide professional accountants in what actions to take in the public interest when they become aware of a potential illegal act, known as non-compliance with laws and regulations, or NOCLAR, committed by a client or employer.
The auditor’s report is the key deliverable communicating the results of the audit process. Investors and other financial statement users have asked for a more informative auditor’s report—in particular for auditors to provide more relevant information to users.
Research, public consultations, and stakeholder outreach, including global roundtables, indicate that enhanced auditor reporting is critical to influencing the perceived value of the financial statement audit.
The objective of this initiative is to explore possible actions to address perceived issues when undertaking audits of less complex entities for further IAASB consideration.
As part of the IAASB’s focus on professional skepticism, this publication provides an update on the IAASB’s efforts to appropriately reflect professional skepticism in its recently-issued, and soon-to-be-issued, standards and exposure drafts. It also includes other relevant news and information, and recent activities of the IESBA and IAESB, related to professional skepticism.