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its home turf of financial reporting out into the wider audit
society (Power, 1997) many of the ’things’ it makes auditable
are people. Is the auditability process in these cases different
when people instead of things are made auditable? Do we see
the same tendency of construction of auditable measures of
performance, systems of control and reliance on other experts
or does it differ somehow? In this paper I explore this process
of making people auditable.
06:04
Voluntary reporting on internal audit – independence
scrutinized
Eklöv Alander, Gunilla
Uppsala University, Department of Business Studies, Uppsala,
Sweden
The presence of internal audit departments in an organization
can be perceived, among other systems and functions, as a
signal to investors and other stakeholders that the organization
is well governed. External auditors are expected to use the
results of inspections undertaken by internal auditors. Whether
the work of internal auditors is solid enough to be of good
value to the external auditors highly depends on the quality
of work and integrity of internal auditors, both as individuals
and as a function. There is always a risk that internal auditors,
despite investigating directives and objectives perceivingly
being set independently of management, are under pressures by
management with consequences on their reporting to the Board
and external auditors. If so, the work of internal auditors may
not be useful for external auditors. Further, concerns may be
expressed that external auditors may be under fee pressures
by audit committees in so far as external auditors are expected
to cooperate with internal auditors in order to decrease its
risk assessments and the amount of testing. It is important
to understand to what extent internal audit functions in
the Swedish environment are well organized, in order to
understand the preconditions faced by external auditors in
this environment. In this article, the voluntary disclosures on
internal audit functions provided in Corporate Governance
Reports 2009 by entities with shares listed on Nasdaq OMX
Stockholm Large cap list are studied through a text analysis.
The aim is to explore fundamentals in these reports on how
such functions are organized (the governance body in charge,
how responsibility is described, reporting lines etc), the task
formulation, and risk analysis as a basis for planning the
inspections. All these matters may be of interest to regulators
when deciding on whether external auditors can work with
internal auditors through direct assistance, as suggested in the
development of revised ISA 610, and otherwise. Results may
also be of indirect interest to the wider public when trust is
being invoked by entities for their efforts concerning this rather
important governance function.
06:05
Audit Committee’s
Einar, Gudbjartsson
University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
The AC will have a big impact in accounting regarding the
financial statements for respective entities and the audit
process. The terms an independent board director and the
function of audit committees’ are keys elements regarding
to the directors board (an executive director board or a
supervisory director board). Is there a difference between
the terms ”an independent board member” and ”a member
independent from the entity”. Part of the paper is concerning
the laws in the Nordic countries on the subject of the audit
committees with focus on the term ”independent”. Should is
the audit committee be independent from the board of director
or should it be a mutual cooperation. The main task of the AC
is to increase confidence and quality in financial reporting. The
main purpose of the paper is to discuss the ”independent” roll
of the audit committee towards the executive board and the
supervisory board, according to EU L52/1 and the task of the
AC to increase the confidence towards the financial market.
06:06
Corporate governance & ethics
Kumar, Kachiraju Satish
University of Botswana, Faculty of Business, Gaborone,
Botswana
Corporate governance refers to matters affecting the structure
and composition of board of directors, issues of corporate policy
and last but not lest the involvement of human beings in all these
stages. Initially ethics has appeared as it belongs to the field of
philosophy rather that to business. But the recent developments
in business community showed considerable importance in the
way they tackle ethical issues in the business front also. An
ethical policy is a good governance practice that assures all the
stakeholders about the company and its various risks.
Corporate performance depends on the consistent application
of values and principles. The values and principles that are
adopted in an organization can be good or bad. In other
words, they can contribute the ability to achieve objectives or
can act as a hindrance. It is only the values and principles that
are used to shape an organization’s ‘climate’ or ‘culture’. The
key role of the directors is to help in creating the conditions
and competencies through which values and principles can be
imbibed in a way to serve the corporate mission.
This paper makes an attempt to identify what an organization
has to do to flourish, especially in times of change, then it must
manage its values and principles in a way that provides a stable
foundation for growth and development. A humble attempt
is made to identify pivotal role to be played by the directors
in the process of building ethical values and principles for
corporation.
06:07
Professional and commercial tension in the accounting
profession: A research note
Öhman, Peter 1 ; Johed, Gustav 2 ; Carrington, Thomas 3 ;
Johansson, Tobias 4
1 Mittuniversitetet, Sundsvall, Sweden; 2 Stockholm University,
Stockholm University School of Business, Stockholm, Sweden;
3 Uppsala Universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen,
Uppsala, Sweden; 4 Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden
This study analyses the degree to which change in the
organisational context, content and location (both of the
individual within the organisation and the organisation within
the field) of professional work in auditing has contributed
to variation in attitudes toward professional ideology and
institutions. Through a survey of all Chartered Accountants
(CA) in Sweden (with a response rate of 41%) we observe
that contrary to media accusations and anecdotal evidence
from interview based research, but similar to previous survey
based research, a majority of accounting professionals remain
committed to their profession, despite profound changes in
the context, content and location of their work. In Sweden
only auditors can carry the CA designation, which makes this
finding even more thought-provoking as previous survey based
studies have found the strongest deviation from professional
values among the core of the accounting profession. Auditors
of listed companies, almost exclusively Big Four auditors,
espouse a stronger commitment to the profession than other
auditors. Within the Big Four there are however considerable
variation.
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