Do Economic Crises Modify the Perceptions on the Audit’s Role?

Author:Associate prof. Laurenţiu DOBROŢEANU, Ph.D., Associate prof. Camelia DOBROŢEANU, Ph.D., Lecturer Daniela CIOLPAN, Ph.D. Student, Lecturer Diana MANEA, Ph.D. Student

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Keywords:perceptions, audit, auditors, economic crises

Abstract:
Following the international financial scandals of early 2000 which ended up with a bankruptcy of one of the global leaders in auditing and consultancy services – Arthur Andersen – the public regulators and profession had focused their attention on reiterating the importance of external auditing and consolidation of its role in securing the investors’ confidence in financial reports published by companies. Their major concern was strongly linked to the fact that the profession itself was facing a credibility problem. Consequently, a significant number of published articles and studies explained in a scientific manner the need for external audit as a key governance mechanism of protection against corporate failures. In spite of such considerable efforts, several years later the economic crises hit again the global economy, leaving room to speculations and questions about the legitimate role of auditing. The present paper identifies and explores some changes of public perceptions over the external audit’s role in the context of actual economic circumstances. Questions such as: Should external auditing be left with a voluntary choice or a legal requirement? Is external auditing a useful service? Why external auditing cannot prevent companies from economic crises implications? etc., are approached in this paper as the authors developed their own hypothesis and views. Conducting a thorough analysis of the current international relevant literature represented the major methodological research procedure employed. The research results are based on the authors’ professional reasoning and judgment. As the research subject – quite innovative in the context of Romanian literature – implies the consideration of connected sciences such as economics, sociology, and psychology, a statistical approach based on conducting a questionnaire would have been a scientific instrument enabling the validation of the results. However, it is worth mentioning that this study reveals the results obtained at a preliminary stage of a more comprehensive research which will employ statistical research instruments as well.\r\n\r\n

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