The Audit Opinion as an Instrument for Reducing the Risk of Fraud in Accounting Statements

In recent years, cases of fraud in the financial statements of large companies with shares traded on the national and international financial markets have been reported in Brazil. What these cases have in common is that all the companies involved have been independently audited over the last few years and had their audit opinions published along with the fraudulent financial statements. The general aim of this article is to reflect on the role of the audit opinion in published financial statements . The work was carried out by means of a qualitative-quantitative analysis, using Nvivo® software, based on the audit opinions of the fraudulent financial statements of listed companies with shares traded on the Brazilian stock market over the last 13 years. The data collected shows that auditors are more responsible for detecting fraud in the reports studied. It can be seen that the auditors have given relevance in this context through which it can be conveyed to the users of the information that the results present in the financial statements analyzed have been carefully analyzed from the perspective of fraud detection, given that the auditors assume responsibility in the meantime. The conclusion was that audit opinions should not be taken as instruments to guarantee the prevention and detection of fraud in financial statements released to the financial market, but only as another instrument to reduce the risks of accounting fraud in these statements.