Select Factors Governing Quality of Statutory Financial Audit: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The study identifies three pertinent areas in an audit procedure where statutory auditors depend upon other internal or external parties for developing audit plan or collecting audit evidences. They are, ‘using the work of internal auditors’, ‘external confirmations’ and ‘using the work of an auditor’s expert’. Auditing standards governing these three distinct issues in three different countries, the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK) and India have been considered and a comparative analysis among their requirements has been made. The study observes that comparable standards governing ‘using the work of internal auditors’, ‘external confirmations’ and ‘using the work of an auditor’s expert are almost identical. However, the standards in UK and India with respect to these issues are more comprehensive than that of USA.

Keywords: Internal Auditor, External Confirmations, Auditor’s Expert, USA, UK, India, Comparative Analysis