Sunday, June 08, 2008

Whack an Auditor

Prem Sikka takes a good hard whack at the current state of auditing in the Guardian.

The massive hike in audit fees has not given us better audits. Carlyle Capital Corporation collapsed within days of receiving a clean bill of health form its auditors. Bear Stearns was bailed out within a few days of receiving another clean bill of health. In the current financial crisis, all major banks received a clean bill of health even though they engaged in massive off balance sheet accounting and around $1.2tn of toxic debts may have been hidden.

The article is completely one sided but then again, I have yet to see any one put up a decent defense from the auditor's side.

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