The importance of audit

Posted on February 11 2021

Much of my current professional life is dedicated to work on the future of accounting and auditing. You might think that sounds boring but it is at least as important as worrying about what the government is up to because a handful of what are called PIEs- or Public Interest Entities- dominate a great deal of our economy and knowing what they are doing really matters.

And that is not just a matter relating to finance. It's much bigger than that. So in that context in this video I suggest a whole new role for audit - which suggests it could be transformed to be the champion of ordinary people wanting to hold these companies to account in the future.

I can dream, and this is one of my dreams right now.

Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:

You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.

And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:

4

4 Responses

  1. Roger says:
    February 12 2021 at 12:59 pm

    Its well worth re-reading Normanton “The accountability and Audit of governments”
    I think you will find it useful.
    As more and more companies will become reliant on public money to maintain themselves as going concerns then a proper public audit needs to be instituted for risk of throwing good money after bad.
    This is not to deny the need for Corporate reporting and the accounting for Public Interest Entities but it gives useful parallels and arguments.
    Not least : “that being subject to audit entails submission to systematic exploration and the obtaining of explanations and documentation of all unusual features encountered”.(p2) “The mystique of formal accounts is a hindrance, not a help, to public accountability” (p2) etc

  2. Tony says:
    February 13 2021 at 4:13 pm

    The pie definition is flawed. Apart from big retailers or hospitality very few companies meet the definition. Even if they do they can have multiple employing entities to avoid the 2000 in one entity definition. It has had a v small impact on services provided by the big 4 firms.