The Need for Auditing Standards

One of the recurring themes in this book is the topic of auditing standards in an international context. Chapters 3 to 10 deal with comparative international auditing standards, Chapter 11 analyses the issues involved in transferring domestic auditing standards overseas and Chapter 13 discusses the international harmonisation of auditing standards. This chapter provides some background to these later chapters by examining the rationale underlying the existence of auditing standards. An understanding of why auditing standards exist seems to be a necessary pre-condition of appreciating international differences and similarities in auditing standards and appreciating the issues raised in applying auditing standards to MNC audits. Raising the question ‘Why auditing standards?’ leads to a more fundamental question, namely ‘Why audit?’. This is the basic question that must be addressed in any discussion relating to auditing.