“If you were the head of audit at one of the Big Four and you read this document, you’d be thinking ‘I think those are the things I’m [already] trying to do.’ The problem, as far as we’re concerned, is they don’t really do it.”
— Sir Jon Thompson, chief executive of the Financial Reporting Council, said to the Financial Times ahead of the launch on Tuesday of the UK audit cops’ first guide for accountants on how they should carry out good audits which is called, obviously, What Makes a Good Audit?
Sir Jon also told FT:
“If we’re telling people who are running these multibillion-pound firms to do something they should have known how to do years ago: why can’t they do it [already]?” Thompson said, pointing to the firms’ scores in the FRC’s annual audit inspections.
Almost 30 per cent of company audits by the seven leading audit firms were deemed to require improvement in this year’s FRC quality inspections … .
Good question. We’ve been wondering the same thing for years.
UK accounting watchdog tells Big Four to run businesses better [Financial Times]
Related article:
KPMG UK Got Absolutely Dragged By the FRC For Its ‘Unacceptable’ Bank Audits
Multi-billion pound firms? Maybe they should try cutting some weight?