Evidence of audit committee activity in the formative years of the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad indicates that control and reporting activity developed long before the existence of regulatory mandate or the external auditing function. This is the earliest example of such an organized and...

The US Auditing Standards Board Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 54 concerns Illegal Acts by Clients. SAS No. 54 is discussed and its requirements are summarised. Written comments on a draft of SAS No. 54 from the auditing community have been analysed. Issues that were highlighted...

Emphasis is placed on the influence of computer crimes on accounting education and training programmes. Computer‐related crimes and their definition, perpetrators, modi operandi , and methods of prevention and detection, are discussed. Recommendations are given for improving the whole delivery...

Personnel selection and professional satisfaction can be affected by the “goodness of fit” between individual certified public accountants and the size of division in which they work. A US survey of: individual personal characteristics; perceived work environment; and interaction between...

The auditor′s responsibility for detecting management fraud of a material nature is affirmed. Auditors are vulnerable to failure when they perform substantive procedures concerned with matters such as asset valuation. Some auditors have tended to “audit to” management representations, a...

Statement on Auditing Standards No. 9 (SAS 9) discusses the role of a client′s internal audit department (IAD) in the independent auditor′s examination. Despite the benefits of reliance on the client′s IAD to both the auditor and client, evidence indicates that SAS 9 has ot been...

Internal audit student internship programmes are an integral part of the curriculum for Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) target schools of US universities. The internship concept is explored ‐ how it is implemented, its characteristics, and its advantages and disadvantages – at six...

A consortium of environmental groups and pension fund managers in the United States have recently announced a set of corporate guidelines called the “Valdez Principles”. One guideline calls for firms to prepare annual environmental reports, which would be independently audited. Accountants...