THE president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) has warned audit reports are "hopeless", writes Greig Cameron.
During an online discussion, Sir David Tweedie faced a question on regaining trust in the audit profession due to concerns over the role of auditors in the financial crisis.
He said: "The audit report at present is hopeless. It's full of who is responsible for what, and it's difficult to find the auditor's opinion."
The former chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board would like there to be more information on going concern assumptions, differences of opinion with financial executives and any contentious accounting policies used.
He said: "If auditors gave this information, they would make the audit much more useful to the investment community – the auditor's real client."
Sir David would also scrap the annual re-appointment of auditors, arguing if the job is to be tendered the auditor should stay in place for the period of that agreement.
He also advocates only allowing an auditor to be fired following a special general meeting.
In response to a question on whether Scottish independence would affect ICAS he said: "[We] might have difficulty attracting students from south of the Tartan Curtain, despite the fact we are the Institute OF Scotland, not IN Scotland.
"Our Scottish heritage gives us our integrity, our backbone and moral stance. It doesn't mean that we do debits and credits to the sound of bagpipes!"
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