Joint external audits : users` perspectives

Abstract

The primary objective of financial reporting is to meet the common information needs of a wide range of users of financial statements. Having an independent external party expressing an opinion on the truth and fairness of the financial statements significantly enhances the credibility of the financials. However, the recent corporate scandals have cast doubts on the role of the auditors. Hence, the scope of this study is to determine whether joint audits could improve the usefulness of the information provided in an entity's financial statements so as to facilitate decision-making for financial statements' users. This study is aimed at analysing the perceptions of Maltese banks, financial analysts and the Inland Revenue Department, in relation to joint audits and at assessing the relative benefits and pitfalls of joint audits as against single-audit financial statements, from the perspectives of these various user-groups. In order to achieve the aforementioned objectives, interviews were conducted with representatives of Maltese commercial banks, with representatives of the Audit and Compliance section of the Inland Revenue Department and with several financial analysts. The outcomes of the said interviews were subsequently used to compare the views of the different user-groups. The study shows that the audit is extremely important for the three user-groups however despite their distinct agreement about the usefulness of the audit, it was also evident that users, particularly bankers and tax assessors, are not always convinced of auditors' impartiality. The study also ascertained that the majority of the participants believe that there are certain circumstances where a joint audit would give a higher level of assurance to the readers of financial statements than that given by an audit carried out by a single audit team, in which cases users agreed that the joint auditors' reports would be indeed a more useful tool for decision-making.