Whistle-blowing by external auditors: seeking legitimacy for the South African audit profession?

Warren, M. and Solomon, J. (2014) Whistle-blowing by external auditors: seeking legitimacy for the South African audit profession? Accounting Forum, 32 (2). pp. 109-121. ISSN 0155-9982 doi: 10.1016/j.accfor.2013.04.007

Abstract/Summary

Auditing is often cited as playing an important role in managing agency-related costs and, accordingly, being integral to the sound functioning of capital markets. There may, however, be more to the attest function than a technical rational practice. By virtue of relying heavily on claims to technical expertise, professionalism, prudential judgement and public confidence, auditing is both a source of legitimacy for organisations and, paradoxically, dependent on claims to legitimacy for its continued existence. From this perspective, recent regulatory developments, purportedly enacted to increase arms-length control over the profession, may not only be about improving perceived audit quality and practice but also about ensuring continued faith in the well-established ‘rituals’ of the assurance function. A reporting duty imposed on South African external auditors, akin to whistle-blowing, is used as a case study to explore this perspective. In doing so, this paper contributes to the scant body of interpretive research on auditing, simultaneously offering one of the first insights into auditing regulation from an African perspective.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/34160
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Henley Business School > Business Informatics, Systems and Accounting
Uncontrolled Keywords	Auditing;Arms-length regulation; Legitimacy; Reportable irregularity(RI; Section 45 of the Auditing Profession Act(the RI provisions); Whistle-blowing
Publisher	Elsevier
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