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Running head:AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY Auditor’s Public Interest Responsibilities and Audit Quality Name of the Student Name of the University Author’s Note
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1AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY Executive Summary According to tis report’s findings, there is a risk of incorrect investment decision by the key stakeholders of Orica Limited in the presence of the material misstatements in the financial statements. In addition, it is required for the auditors to follow the principles ofAPES 110to adhere to the public interest requirements of the profession. The auditors are needed to take the lessons from the collapse of Enron for avoiding the reoccurrence of these types of collapse further in Australia.
2AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY Table of Contents 1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3 2. Impact of Material Misstatements on the Key Stakeholders of Orica Limited.....................3 3. Auditor’s Public Interest Requirements.................................................................................5 3.1 Auditor Independence.....................................................................................................5 3.2 Audit Whistleblowing.......................................................................................................5 3.3 APES 110 Auditor’s Public Interest Requirements...........................................................6 4. Audit Lessons from Enron Scandal and the Behaviour of Arthur Andersen..........................6 4.1 Lessons from Enron Collapse...........................................................................................6 4.2 Lessons from the Behaviour of Arthur Andersen............................................................8 5. Quality of Audit and Measures requires to take to address the Warning Note....................9 6. Conclusion............................................................................................................................12 7. References............................................................................................................................14 8. Appendices...........................................................................................................................17
3AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY 1. Introduction Auditingisconsideredasaninterestingprofessionwheretheauditorsare accountable to identify the material misstatements in the financial statements of their clients through the application substantive and analytical audit procedures where they undertake the examination of the financial statements of the companies (Bentley, Omer and Sharp 2013). Audited financial statements are considered as a major tool to the firms’ key stakeholders for the purpose of decision making about the resources of the firms (Lennox, Wu and Zhang 2014). For this reason, the auditors must be responsible as well as accountable while conducting the audit procedures due to the presence of the obligation to serve in the best interest of the public (Abernathyet al.2013). Hence, they need to adhere to the public responsibility requirements of the profession. There are four parts in this report. The first part assesses the impact of inefficient identification, disclosure and adjustments of material misstatements in the financial statements on the key stakeholders. The next part assesses the public responsibility requirements of the auditors. The next parts discusses about the main auditing lessons from the collapse of Enron and their auditors. The last part discusses about the required steps the auditors need to take to avoid the collapses like Enron. 2. Impact of Material Misstatements on the Key Stakeholders of Orica Limited There are many instances where the auditors failed in identifying, disclosing and adjusting the material misstatements in the financial statements and it created certain risks for the key stakeholders of those companies. The following discussion aims at identifying the risks that material misstatements can pose to the key stakeholders of Orica Limited:
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4AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY Employees and Contractors:According to the appendix, the main interest areas of this key stakeholder group of Orica Limited is career development opportunities, performance management and senior leadership (orica.com 2019). Thus, Orica Limited must continue as a going concern for fulfilling these concerns of this stakeholder group. In this situation, the financial performance of the company can get majorly affected with the presence of material misstatements in the financial statements and it can pose the risk of dissatisfaction of the major concerns of this stakeholder group (Lennox and Li 2014). Suppliers and Business Partners:The appendix states that the main concerns of this key stakeholder group in Orica Limited are product performance, cost, reliability of supply, business sustainability and sustainability impact of products and services (orica.com 2019). In addition, this stakeholder group needs to assess the company’s ability to repay the suppliers’credit.However,incasethereisimproperidentification,disclosureand adjustments of material misstatements in the financial statements of the company, the risk that is created is the incorrect judgment of the company’s ability to repay the credit and the non-fulfilment of the major concerns of this stakeholder (Knechel and Salterio 2016). Shareholders and the Investment Community:As per the appendix, they are one of the major key stakeholder groups of Orica Limited and the areas of concern of this group is financial performance of the company, delivery on company’s strategy and governance (orica.com 2019). In addition, they rely on the published financial information of Orica Limited to make investment decision. Thus, the presence of material misstatements in the financialstatementscanposetheriskofincorrectinvestmentdecisionbythese stakeholders along with dissatisfying their major concerns (Quadackers, Groot and Wright 2014).
5AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY Government:As per the appendix, Government is one major key stakeholders of Orica Limited and they are concerned with the socio-economic contribution of the company (orica.com 2019). In this situation, the presence of material misstatements creates major hindrances in the good performance of the company which can eventually create threat of lack of socio-economic contribution by Orica Limited (Lobo and Zhao 2013). 3. Auditor’s Public Interest Requirements 3.1 Auditor Independence The principles of auditor independence put the obligation on the company auditors to stay independent from the audit client mentally and from appearance (Guénin-Paracini, MalschandTremblay2014).Thus,auditorindependencecanbeconsidered asthe substance or matters that demand the commitment from the auditors to conduct the audit operations objectively in the absence of any undue influence and conflict of interest as these can affect the appropriate audit opinion on the material misstatements. For the Australian auditors, it is needed for them to comply with the audit independence principles inAPES 110(Kouakou, Boiral and Gendron 2013). 3.2 Audit Whistleblowing Whistleblowing is considered as another crucial aspect in auditing and in general that assists the internal members of the businesses to take unusual ways for the reporting of any kind of illegal business activities in the company (Smith 2013). They are needed to report about such illegal activities to the internal or external regulatory authorities in the presence of appropriate evidence. Thus, whistleblowing can be considered as the process of unveiling the unethical business practices to the appropriate authorities. It needs to be
6AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY mentioned that the whistleblowers can report about the unethical business practices to the external auditors of the firms (Smaili and Arroyo 2017). 3.3 APES 110 Auditor’s Public Interest Requirements Therequiredregulationsandstandardsabouttheauditors’publicinterest requirements can be obtained from the crucial documents ofAPES 110Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants. According toSection AUST210.11.1 of APES 110, an auditor who is instructed to gain the nomination for replacing an existing auditor needs to request to the audit client for asking the current auditor for the needed information on audit nomination (apesb.org.au2019).Therequirementfortheauditorsistodisapprovetheaudit engagement and nomination in case the audit client disapproves the permission. However, in case the audit client approves the permission, it is needed for the auditor to ask for the required information to the existing audit client for the nomination related information (apesb.org.au 2019). It needs to be mentioned that this regulation is essential to provide the whistleblowers with the necessary protection (apesb.org.au 2019). After that,Section 100.1 of APES 110states that it is the responsibility of the auditors to act in the favour of the public and hence, fulfilling the requirements of the audit clients exclusively is not the sole responsibility of the auditors (apesb.org.au 2019). For this reason, the obligation on the auditors is to ensure the compliance with all the regulations of public interest requirements as perAPES 110(apesb.org.au 2019). 4. Audit Lessons from Enron Scandal and the Behaviour of Arthur Andersen 4.1 Lessons from Enron Collapse Correct Audit Standards:The main concern that the collapse of Enron contributed to the audit profession is the problems in both audit and accounting standards as both of these
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7AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY largely contributed towards the Enron scandal. For this reason, there is a desperate essentiality of the introduction of correct auditing and accounting standards that can be obtained from adhering with the principles of globally accepted standards (da Silveira 2013). Accounting Records Manipulation:The information of the collapse of Enron sates that the management team of Enron selected Arthur Andersen as their audit partner and used them to manipulate the accounting records and information for illegal and unfair gain. Hence, instead of the private accounting firms, the audit responsibilities should stay to the government agencies where they will be responsible for appointing the auditing based on the needs and fees (Augustineet al.2014). In addition, the auditors should not involve themselves in providing the consultancy and non-assurance services to the audit clients as it can create self-interest threat of audit independence. Incentives for the Auditors:According to one of the lessons from the Enron scandal, it is possible to improve the audit quality in the presence of proper incentives for the auditors as the presence of penalties de-motivates the auditors. In present, majority number of the auditors all over the world prefers to comply with the principles of objectivity and professional competence and due care. Thus, the auditor’s insight can be used as the promoter of audit quality as it helps in showing the areas in audit that need improvements. For example, Sarbanes-Oxley Act states that the companies are not needed to publish the audit inspection reports that criticises the work of the auditors (Hamilton and Micklethwait 2016). Introduction of Auditor Independent Oversight:As per another crucial lesson from the collapse of Enron, the application of auditor independent insight in the right area can increase the quality of audit. However, the auditors must have sufficient skills, experience
8AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY and knowledge for the development and application of independent insight. One way to improve the independent oversight of the auditor is the introduction of the audit inspection inititiatives as this process will undertake the re-examination of the auditors’ judgments and estimates for the preparation of audit opinion (Albeksh 2016). Association between Auditors and Audit Committee:According to another crucial lesson from the Enron scandal, it is one of the major responsibilities of the companies to ensure the presence of truthfulness and fairness in the disclosure of financial information, only them the auditor independent insight could enhance the audit quality. This particular aspect can be achieved by establishing major association between the external auditors and the audit committee of the companies. Auditor committees need to ensure that the financial information is presented in the true and fair way so that they can be majorly helpful for the external auditors to identify any dispute in the financial reporting (Hays and Ariail 2013). Internal Control’s Significance:As per another major lesson from the collapse of Enron, there is major significance of strong internal control for financial reporting due to the fact that the companies can regain the confidence of the shareholders in the presence of strong internal control. One major requirement for strong internal control is maintaining the true and fair disclosure of the financial information as a part of correct financial reporting. For this reason, it is needed for the external auditors to gain understanding of the clients’ internal control by discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the internal control (Chernov and Sornette 2016). 4.2 Lessons from the Behaviour of Arthur Andersen The published information about the collapse of Enron indicates towards the fact that the auditor of the company had major involvement in the total collapse of the
9AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY company. Arthur Andersen was the auditor of the company and they were the second oldest audit company at that time. Ensuring true and fairness of the financial statements along with the identification of the material misstatements was the main responsibility of theauditorsofArthurAndersen(Markham2015).However,theyfailedinthese responsibilities as they ignored the detection of material misstatements in the financial statements that the key stakeholders of Enron used for investment decisions. It needs to be mentioned that Enron employed some of the auditors of Arthur Andersen and the audit firm was involved in business relationship with the company (Markham 2015). In the presence of self-interest in the audit client, Arthur Andersen did not collect information about audit nomination and audit engagement. Moreover, some of the audit members of Arthur Andersen destroyed certain significant audit documents so that the federal government agencies could not obtain them at the time of investigation. All these aspects indicate towards the fact that Arthur Andersen was illegal as well as unethical in the audit operations of Enron (Markham 2015). 5. Quality of Audit and Measures requires to take to address the Warning Note The quality of audit cannot be defined under the global regulations of auditing, but the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has defined audit quality in the possible manner. As per the definition of ASIC, Audit Quality can be considered as the matters that assist the auditor to achieve the audit objectives in the most objective manner that is the detection of the material misstatements in the financial statements; and audit quality can be maintained by reporting the deficiencies detected in the financial statements in the audit report (asic.gov.au 2019). Greg Medctaft, the outgoing Chairman of ASIC, has issued a warning to the Australian audit profession that the country could face the
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10AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY occurrence of another Enron in case there is not any initiative to enhance the standard of audit from the big four audit firm of the country (abc.net.au 2019). Greg Medctaft added that the main need for the auditors of Australia to be extra careful and responsible while they are performing the audit of the large Australian companies for avoiding the collapses like Enron (abc.net.au 2019). In case the auditors want to address this warning note, they will be needed to maintain their compliance with all the ethical and fundamental audit standards and principles at the time of the detection of gaining required evidencefor thedetection of thematerialmisstatements in them (Tepalagul and Lin 2015). It can be seen fromAPES 110, Section 2that the auditors need to be accountable and responsible in ensuring the true and fair view of the financial statements of the audit clients (apesb.org.au 2019). Greg Medctaft also emphasized on the failure of audit as a main reason for the collapse of Enron. For this reason, it is needed for the auditors to take the necessary legal steps to avoid the audit failure and it can be done by complying with the needed auditing standards. In the recent years, ASIC took the initiative for collecting the key audit samples of the big four audit firms of Australia for the period of eighteen months up to December 2016. As per the result of this analysis, it was seen that the big four firms failed in 23 percent cases to provide the required assurance (abc.net.au 2019). Lack of professional scepticism can be held responsible for that as it decreases the ability of the auditors to face and handle the complex audit circumstances. The same was happened with Arthur Andersen in the case of Enron as they failed to maintain professional scepticism in the whole audit process of Enron. It needs to be mentioned that Arthur Andersen had to face the consequences of their
11AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY association with Enron scandal as their audit operation was affected with the collapse (abc.net.au 2019). Greg Medcraft has stated that above six years, ASIC conducted 7000 high-intensity surveillance that includes thousand number of investigation and the result lead to confine more than 80 people and the restriction of more than 600 and refunded $1.3 billion to the victims (abc.net.au 2019). Greg Medcraft put the responsibility on the other members to finish the task as he was about to leave the position. Both the regulatory authorities and the Australian government took the decision to impose legal penalties on them as it was evident that civil penalties were not enough (abc.net.au, 2019). Thus, the need for the auditors is to maintain audit independence so that safeguards can be applied to reduce the risks to the safe level. APES 110, Section 290.155indicates towards the fact that it may not be possible to apply the safeguard of key audit partner rotation when the audit client has only few auditors with the required experience and knowledge to perform the audit operations (apesb.org.au 2019). At the same time, it is possible for the auditor to stay as the Key Audit partner of the firm when there is exemption on the process of key audit partner rotation from the audit authority as per the regulation ofAPES 110, Section 290.155.APES 110have introduced these regulations so that the whistleblowers can gain the needed safeguards along with the freedom of speech in whistleblowing (apesb.org.au 2019). At the same time, it can be seen fromAPES 110; Section 100.1that one of the major attributes of the audit professionisthatitdemandsthecommitmentoftheauditorstomaintainthe responsibilities of public interest as they need to act in the best possible interest of the
12AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY public (apesb.org.au 2019). For this reason, they cannot only consider the demands of the audit client and the audit employers (apesb.org.au 2019). Thus, with the aim to address the warning note of Greg Medcraft, the prime responsibility of the auditors is to adhere to the fundamental as well as ethical code of conducts ofAPES 110that are integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality and professional behaviour (apesb.org.au 2019). At the same time, it is needed for the big four audit firms to take added responsibilities that will ensure the increaseofauditstandardswhenauditingthebigaccountsofthebigAustralian corporations. Moreover, the Australian auditors are needed to comply with the standards and principles of auditor independence to keep themselves away from self-interest threats and to comply with the principles of professional scepticism so that they become able in facing the challenging situations when performing audit of the large corporations (Gunny and Zhang 2013). All these aspects together will assist in enhancing the audit quality that will eventually assist the Australian auditors to avoid the occurrence of another Enron Scandal in Australia. 6. Conclusion To infer, the Australian auditors are needed to feel the essentiality of complying with the standards and principles of audit profession in case they do not want to reoccurrence of the collapses like Enron in Australia. The discussion shows that the auditors of Orica Limited need to ensure the correct identification, disclosure and adjustment of the material misstatements in the financial reports so that the decision making process of the key stakeholders of the firm does not get affected. After that, it is needed to encourage the process of whistleblowing for reporting the unethical business activities and with the aim to
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13AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY ensure this;APES 110have provided various safeguards. While discussing about the audit lessons from the sandal of Enron, the need for the Australian auditors is to consider each lesson as these lessons can be used as the tools to avoid the reoccurrence of Enron scandal in the country by increasing the quality of audit. At the same time, the need for the auditors is to comply with the principles and standards ofAPES 110as it is a crucial requirement to increase the audit quality.
14AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY 7. References ABC News. (2017).Poor auditing could be 'canary in the coal mine' for financial crisis: ASIC. [online] Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-03/asic-boss-concerned-over- poor-auditing/9114490 [Accessed 20 Jan. 2019]. Abernathy, J.L., Herrmann, D., Kang, T. and Krishnan, G.V., 2013. Audit committee financial expertise and properties of analyst earnings forecasts.Advances in Accounting,29(1), pp.1- 11. Albeksh, H.M.A., 2016. The Crisis of the Ethics of Audit Profession: Collapse of Enron Company and the Lessons Learned.Open Access Library Journal,3(11), p.1. Apesb.org.au.2019.[online]Availableat: https://www.apesb.org.au/uploads/standards/apesb_standards/standard1.pdf[Accessed 20 Jan. 2019]. Asic.gov.au. (2019).Audit quality - The role of others | ASIC - Australian Securities and InvestmentsCommission.[online]Availableat: https://asic.gov.au/regulatory-resources/financial-reporting-and-audit/auditors/audit- quality-the-role-of-others/ [Accessed 20 Jan. 2019]. Augustine, O.E., Mgbame, C., Efayena, O. and Edegware, J., 2014. Audit firm characteristics andauditingquality:TheNigerianexperience.ResearchJournalofFinanceand Accounting,5(6), pp.23-34. Bentley, K.A., Omer, T.C. and Sharp, N.Y., 2013. Business strategy, financial reporting irregularities, and audit effort.Contemporary Accounting Research,30(2), pp.780-817.
15AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY Chernov, D. and Sornette, D., 2016. Dynamics of information flow before major crises: lessons from the collapse of Enron, the subprime mortgage crisis and other high impact disasters in the industrial sector. InDisaster Forensics(pp. 175-221). Springer, Cham. da Silveira, A.D.M., 2013. The Enron scandal a decade later: lessons learned?. Guénin-Paracini, H., Malsch, B. and Tremblay, M.S., 2014. On the operational reality of auditors'independence:Lessonsfromthefield.Auditing:AJournalofPractice& Theory,34(2), pp.201-236. Gunny, K.A. and Zhang, T.C., 2013. PCAOB inspection reports and audit quality.Journal of Accounting and Public Policy,32(2), pp.136-160. Hamilton, S. and Micklethwait, A., 2016.Greed and corporate failure: The lessons from recent disasters. Springer. Hays, J.B. and Ariail, D.L., 2013. Enron Should Not Have Been a Surprise and the Next Major Fraud Should Not Be Either.Journal of Accounting and Finance,13(3), pp.134-145. Knechel, W.R. and Salterio, S.E., 2016.Auditing: Assurance and risk. Routledge. Kouakou, D., Boiral, O. and Gendron, Y., 2013. ISO auditing and the construction of trust in auditor independence.Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal,26(8), pp.1279-1305. Lennox,C.andLi,B.,2014.Accountingmisstatementsfollowinglawsuitsagainst auditors.Journal of Accounting and Economics,57(1), pp.58-75. Lennox, C.S., Wu, X. and Zhang, T., 2014. Does mandatory rotation of audit partners improve audit quality?.The accounting review,89(5), pp.1775-1803.
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16AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY Lobo,G.J.andZhao,Y.,2013.Relationbetweenauditeffortandfinancialreport misstatements:Evidencefromquarterlyandannualrestatements.TheAccounting Review,88(4), pp.1385-1412. Markham, J.W., 2015.A financial history of modern US corporate scandals: From Enron to reform. Routledge. Orica.com. 2019.Orica Sustainability Reports and Orica's Safety Record. [online] Available at: https://www.orica.com/Sustainability/sustainability-reports#.XEQritIza00 [Accessed 20 Jan. 2019]. Quadackers, L., Groot, T. and Wright, A., 2014. Auditors’ professional skepticism: Neutrality versus presumptive doubt.Contemporary accounting research,31(3), pp.639-657. Smaili, N. and Arroyo, P., 2017. Categorization of whistleblowers using the whistleblowing triangle.Journal of Business Ethics, pp.1-23. Smith,R.,2013.Whistleblowingandhierarchicalbureaucracy:Re-thinkingthe relationship.E-Journal of International and Comparative Labour Studies. Tepalagul, N. and Lin, L., 2015. Auditor independence and audit quality: A literature review.Journal of Accounting, Auditing & Finance,30(1), pp.101-121.
17AUDITOR’S PUBLIC INTEREST RESPONSIBILITIES AND AUDIT QUALITY 8. Appendices