Perspectives on the Auditing Profession Part I: The Practicing Profession

IDEAS THAT PERVADE THE NARRATIVE Three ideas pervade my narrative. First, the ultimate driving value-added service that the audit profession provides the public marketplace is embodied completely in high-quality audits performed and reported on by expert audit professionals of high integrity and independence. Second, the business model of public accounting that evolved in the 1970s and 1980s and found its most complete expression in the late 1990s is fundamentally flawed by placing the business of accounting ahead of professional commitments and the resulting failure to support the independent audit. Third, the current, almost single-minded, focus on the sustainability of the current audit firms only promotes the public good if we first create the forces and incentives that will assure the preeminence of the independent audit. The prestige and contributions of accounting professionals in both the academic and practice realms depend upon the success of the profession as a whole and particularly the practice profession. Failure of the practicing profession to meet its public interest goals and gain the public prestige by successfully meeting those goals will lead to failure of the academic accounting enterprise as well. Because practice success is critical, I address practice issues in Part I.