New auditing standards to help regain trust in the profession

Without trust, there can be no growth. Although the auditing profession has played a significant role in establishing trust for centuries, in the wake of the global financial crisis, concerns have been raised about relevance and the value of auditors’ work.

While our work allows us to express opinions on the fairness of financial information presented to stakeholders, we also gain significant insights into the business and operations of the companies we audit. But these insights never reach the users of financial statements, because our opinions are binary in nature. Either pass or fail.

These factors coupled with ever evolving stakeholder needs have resulted in calls for enhanced auditor reporting. In response, the International Federation of Accountants has introduced new auditing standards, requiring auditors to add more information. This standard will become effective from December next year in the UAE and auditors of all listed companies will have to comply with the standards. Read more

As we see that it is the first step towards upgrade auditor reporting, it is believed that the new and revised standards are expected to have an intense affect on corporate governance and accounting profession in UAE.