Audit quality not just auditors' responsibility

DURING the high-profile trial of City Harvest Church, the auditors were rigorously cross-examined at the witness stand. Every word uttered by the auditors was scrutinised and placed under the public eye. The involvement of the auditors in the legal proceedings may lead to speculation on whether they have done a proper job.

Contrary to popular belief, the quality of an audit does not depend entirely on the auditors. Management, company directors and regulators all have key contributory roles towards audit quality.

Before we delve deeper into this issue, let us first consider the term audit quality. On their own, the two words - "audit" and "quality" - are comprehensible. But when put together, they morph into a nebulous concept that has no universally accepted definition. Nevertheless, the objective of an audit is to ensure that there are no significant misstatements in a set of financial statements. Hence, one perspective is to regard audit quality as achieving the objective of an audit.