AUDITORS-PUBLIC INTEREST ROLE

  Giovanni Andrea Toselli
National Technical Partner PricewaterhouseCoopers & Assirevi
Auditors play a significant role in the mechanics of the financial
system; they contribute to the public interest
assessing the transparency of the financial information, reducing the
information risk and carrying out a public
function which is paramount for an efficient system.
As for any other ”public interest” role it is performed under
conditions of general acceptance: the Audit profession is
based on international rules and practices.
The value of the Audit profession is enhanced by the fact that “an
audit is an audit” and it has the same meaning
wherever is performed, and irrespective of the specific auditor. This
central idea gives then the wave to the use of
Global Auditing Standards, developed internationally and applied consistently.
However rules can not anticipate all possible puzzles of any
profession, this implies the use of professional judgment
to apply the general provisions to the specific circumstances of the
single engagement. The link between the needs of
the market participants and the exercise of professional judgment is
the Professional Ethics, not just as a formalized
code of Ethics but a perception or a vision of the auditing professional role.
The existence of a common set of rules widely applied, questions the
feasibility of the local and global application of
the Auditing standard. No difference in principle. The audit is the
audit wherever is performed. And only the
professional deep knowledge of the system surrounding each engagement
can lead in exercising adequate
professional judgment.
At the same time, it is to be pointed out that applying this judgment
the auditor has to consider primarily the role of
the financial information and its impact on the stakeholders
interests. Taking into account, first of all, the users’ needs
and expectations is the challenge for the audit profession and is the
only way to fulfill its public interest role, both
locally and globally.