ANN CROTTY: Countering the kangaroo court mentality
Are auditors now being watched so closely that there is absolutely no tolerance for even a sliver of slack?
A young friend who is about to sign up with one of the big four accounting firms told me her biggest fear is being asked to accommodate some small discrepancy in figures she has to audit. She wasn’t virtue-signalling or suggesting she might be more ethical than the next person, or even the next auditor. She is worried about a dilemma she might face in the future: does she stick rigidly to her ticking obligations or does she allow for some slack? And if she allows for slack, how much? Or are auditors now being watched so closely that there is absolutely no tolerance for even a sliver of slack? I couldn’t make out if her concern about governance implications of her use of discretion is really good news or really bad news. It certainly seems to be at odds with what I was told some years ago was the popular view among accounting students — that having to study stuff like business ethics and corporate governance was a bit of a drag and rather pointless. Now it seems studying beyond the s...
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