In their 1992 paper "The audit expectations gap - plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose?", Humphrey & Moizer stated:

"The expectations gap has thus been classified by the profession as a problem caused by the public's misunderstanding of the audit function, by over-exaggerated responses to the isolated failings of individual auditors..."

In his 2019 report "Report of the independent review into the quality and effectiveness of audit", Sir Donald Bryden included reference to a submission from Sarasin & Partners who conclude:

'the expectations gap is an invention of the accounting profession used to blame users for failing to understand what the profession does."

1. Analyse whether the profession has changed its attitude to the expectation gap in the last three decades.

2. Critically discuss whether audit report should expand to consider non-financial information and address a wider group of stakeholders.

3. Critically discuss whether auditors should be responsible for the detection of fraud.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

The public demands more responsibility from the auditor in terms of identification prevention and de... View the full answer