Page 19 - Auditors Article

Grant Thornton, former Patisserie Valerie auditor, came under

investigation by the Financial Reporting Council. Its chief
executive, David Dunckley said the job of auditors should be

seen as “We are not looking for fraud and we are not looking

at the future and we are not giving a statement that the

accounts are correct.” [Financial Times,7, 2019] So! Whose job is it
to spot a potential fraud – the part-time bookkeeper, a

director, the accountants that prepare the annual accounts or

the external, independent auditors?

The short answer is all of them but the emphasis must surely

lie with the auditor who has a responsibility to verify all the

assets appearing on the balance sheet and also a duty to

verify that there are no other assets which ought to appear on
the balance sheet (See Diagram 3).