CONTROVERSIONS ON THE ROLE OF AUDITORS IN PREVENTING AND DISCOVERING FRAUDS

Abstract

Since the forties of the last century, there has been a continuous discussion on the role of auditors in preventing and discovering frauds. It arises from the gap between what auditors believe they should and can offer with regard to discovery of fraud and what the users of their services, i.e. reports, expect. The International Standards on Auding and The International Internal Audit Standards have defined what should be done by external, i.e. internal auditors with regard to frauds. Both ought to plan and perform audit with due professional care so as to evaluate the risk of the fraud appearing, its effect on financial statements, i.e. on the operations of the organisation and to inform the management of the organization about it. However, the problem appears if the top management of the organisation is involved in fraud and the question arising is how auditors should behave in such cases? Some disputable issues related
to this have been considered in this paper, which has been the basis for indicating some possible solutions which, among other, include improvement of the regulatory framework of the internal and external audit.