2 thoughts on “Guiqiu's factors and countermeasures that affect the independence of the audit of registered accountants in my country”
Kristina
Abstract: This article combines my country's actual situation and believes that the company's governance structure is incomplete, non -audit business, and the organizational structure and scale of registered accounting firms, and the lack of severe post -after -to -after -punishment mechanism is an important factor that affects the independence of the audit of registered accountants in my country. It is proposed to improve the independence of audit, that is, regulate the company's governance structure, clarify the audit entrustment mechanism, standardize non -audit business, reform the organization form of accounting firms, expand the size of the firm, and establish a severe post -after -after punishment mechanism.
The keywords: influence; registered accountant; independence; factor; countermeasures n n registered accountant audit is a powerful defense line that maintains the stability of social and economic order and commercial justice, auditing independence nature It is the cornerstone of the defense line; losing independence, the value of the audit opinion is very small, and the social efficacy of the audit occupation does not exist. From the Enron incident to the Yinguangxia incident, it highlights the disadvantages brought about by the independent defects of the CPA. Through the three -dimensional reflection of these audit failure cases, we should realize that independence is the foundation of registered accountants to settle down. Only when the accounting industry is strictly disciplined and improves the understanding and requirements of independence, the integrity of the industry can recover and carry forward.
. Factors that affect the independence of the audit of the Certified Public Accountants
(1) The impact of the incomplete corporate governance structure on independence
The current, in the current, in the current, in the current, in the current, in the current, in the current, in the current, in the current, in the current, at the current, in the current, at the current, in the current, it is currently. Among the listed companies in my country, state -owned shares are in an absolute control position in most cases. Its shareholders are generally the administrative department at the higher level. This type of shareholding is a virtual subject. An internal motivation, which causes the state -owned shareholders' supervision and restraint mechanism of the company's operators. For many small and small shareholders, assuming they are rational people in the market economy. For the sake of maximizing their own interests, they will not spend time and energy to supervise the board of directors of the company. Their rational choice is "waiting." In this way, the authority of the shareholders 'meeting is difficult to exercise, and the company's directors have not been realized by the shareholders' meeting. They lack the fundamental motivation to safeguard the interests of shareholders, and the board of directors cannot play a control of the company's management management. At the same time, many company managers themselves are chairman or important members of the board of directors. In fact, operators from the shareholders of the shareholders actually collect the decision -making power, management power, and supervision power of the company. In this case, the trial client and the auditing person have a "unity" tendency. In addition, in my country's state -owned enterprises, due to unclear property rights, there is also a phenomenon of "ownership absence". It can be seen that the legal person governance structure of my country's company is invalid. As the role of the auditor, the corporate management authorities have also played the role of the audit client, and determined that all matters such as the selection, renewal, and remuneration of the registered accountant distorted the audit client and the auditor The relationship with the three auditors has destroyed the independence of the audit of the Certified Public Accountant, increasing the possibility of the failure of the audit of the Certified Public Accountants, and directly reduced the public's trust in the audit of the registered accountant. [1]
(2) The impact of non -audit business on independence
registered accountants to provide non -audit business (such as accounting services, tax agency, management consulting) Independence has an impact, and has been speaking for a long time. The author believes that the CPA provides the same enterprise both the legal audit business and the non -audit business, and will be involved in corporate affairs too much, thereby forming an intimate relationship with the customer management authorities that "can only be possible and not speak". Although the registered accountant is not a decision maker, he is a participant in the decision -making process. In the entire process of proposal, feasibility study, and judgment, the CPA has always had close contact with the management authorities. This contact will lead to a subtle interaction between the formation of a personnel and the management authorities, thereby weakening the independence of the registered accountant. In addition, the registered accountant conducts non -audit business, and its quality can be measured with customer operating results; at the same time, the management authorities also evaluate him based on the standards of the appraisal manager. In other words, the reputation of the Certified Public Accountant depends on his results. Then, the registered accountant will inevitably have financial interests with customers in the results of non -audit business. In this case, the independence of registered accountants is inevitable. As Mutz and Charaf said: "Once a suggestion for the company's decision -making, the interdependence of consultants and the interests between the company began to develop. As a successful consultant, he has an economy with the company because of his reputation. The interest relationship. Moreover, this interest relationship is no different from the interests of full -time staff, only the difference in quantity. "
(3) The impact of the organizational structure and scale of the registered accounting firm on independence
At present, it is measured from the perspective of organization independence. It is in a formal independent and substantial state. The specific manifestation of the restructuring accounting firm has a limited accumulation of its own funds and the poor ability to resist risks, which has caused it to have a certain dependence with the previous units. This kind of open -minded relationship often forms dark box operations. Needless to say, the accounting firm's organization relationship is not independent. At best, it can only become a control organization for the unit industry or regional sector. Once the industry and regional interests contradict with other interests, it is naturally difficult for the accounting firm The restraint of its own interests will be tilted with objective and fair balance.
The size of the firm is also an important factor affecting the independence of audit. my country's accounting firms are small in size. Although many accounting firms have experienced the market integration driven by many governments in the process of developing from small to large, the scale has expanded, but the overall scale is still far from international. Due to the small scale of accounting firms and low business income, not only the normal audit business is difficult to standardize, but also the large -scale accounting firms audited large companies, which will inevitably rely on large customers in terms of economy. Customers controlled by insiders made it difficult to independently, objectively, and impartially expressing audit opinions, which led to the lack of independence of the registered accountant occupation. [3]
(4) The lack of severe post -after -after punishment mechanism has also had a certain impact on independence
The last line of defense of the punishment mechanism to ensure the independence of the audit. The weak punishment mechanism will make the expected income of accounting fraud greater than the expected cost. The office will take risks with fluke. The relevant provisions of the relevant laws in my country is relatively complete, and the relevant terms of criminal responsibility and civil liability, especially civil liability, are too general and do not have operability. The imperfections of the law and the lack of judicial interpretation of it have caused criminal responsibility and civil liability to be in accordance with the law, which weakens audit independence.
. Countermeasures to improve the independence of registered accountants
(1) Standardize the company's governance structure, clarify the audit attorney The basic characteristic of the governance structure is the balance of power based on the decentralization of property rights. Therefore, the diversified property structure with legal person's shares as the main body can be established, which can support the registered accountant to maintain independence from the system. The specific method is to establish a diversified property structure with legal person stocks as the mainstay, and replacing state -owned shares in the listed company with legal person shares to establish a company shares including investment banks, investment funds, investment companies, individuals, and countries. The property right structure solves the situation of the state -owned shares formed in the corporate governance structure. This diversified property power structure can form a constraint mechanism for operators, strengthen the control of shareholders, and reduce the defects of "insider control". In addition, you can further improve the independent director system and the audit committee system, and the audit committee selects an accounting firm; determines the scope and remuneration of the service provided by the accounting firm, meet with the accounting firm on a regular basis, understand the audit process and the problems found in the audit, help help Solve conflicts between accounting firms and management departments. Therefore, the agency relationship of audit entrustment is creened, the phenomenon of the combination of the auditors and the auditors, and improving the independence of audit.
(2) Standardize non -audit business
Hing that the non -audit business has an impact on independence, it cannot be prohibited from registered accountants to engage in non -audit business. Because this is not in line with my country's national conditions, and it is not conducive to expanding the scope of business choices in accounting firms and accelerating industry construction. The ideal approach should be regulated by non -audit business. For example, the audit business and non -audit business are borne by different accountants. This approach can avoid the consistent non -audit business that consistent with the interests of the Certified Public Accountants and the interests of the client affects the independence of the registered accountant. Western countries' large and medium -sized accounting firms generally separate the audit department and the consulting department within its internal responsibility.
(3) Reform the form of an organization of accounting firms, expand the size of the firm
The country should vigorously promote the transition from the limited liability system to the partnership system. The partnership system can best reflect the professional characteristics of the registered accountant industry, and meet the requirements of the public. It is also the most common organizational form in the world. Partnership or soley system is also the main form of professional practice. Adopting a partnership, the interests of partners are closely related to the performance and fate of the firm, and more stress and motivation to strengthen risk, responsibility, quality and brand awareness, and naturally can also resist the improper will from the company's operators.
Secondly, from the perspective of the scale of accounting firms, the economic interests of large accounting firms on customers with large business volume are smaller than small accounting firms. When the client asked the accounting firm to issue an illegal audit report and threatened the entrustment, the APIC Firm refused to have a relatively small economic loss brought by the request. Moreover, the Treasury Firm pays more attention to long -term development, and they care more about their professional reputation, and this reputation is the true cornerstone of their long -term stable economic sources. And small accounting firms pay more attention to short -term economic benefits, and will tend to give up their own independence because they are afraid of losing their main economic sources. [4]
(4) Establish a severe post -post punishment mechanism
In the punishment of registered accountants for fraud, so that there is a law to be rely on Law enforcement must be strict and illegal. The first is to increase the loss of independence of registered accountants, violate the judicial intervention of criminal law, and investigate the criminal liability of illegal registered accountants. The second is that the judicial organs should quickly study and formulate a specific dictatorship of civil compensation liability for the failure of the audit of the Certified Public Accountants so that there is a law to rely on. The third is to hurry up the construction of corporate management authorities, securities underwriting agencies, legal advisers, major shareholders, insider trading and shares manipulator, and even government securities regulatory agencies. Essence
The reference
[1] An Guangshi. Research on ways to improve my country's registered accountant audit independence [J]. Financial research, 2003, (4): 118-122.
[2] Zhou Chaolun. On the factors and countermeasures that affect the independence of registered accountants [J]. Economic issue exploration, 2003, (6): 83 ~ 85.
[3] He Liping. Strengthen the study of the independence of registered accountants [J]. North Economic and Trade, 2004, (4): 59 ~ 60.
[4] Xiong Feng. Independence: The soul of the Certified Public Accountants [J]. Hubei Finance, 2003, (7): 36 ～ 37.
I. Factors that affect the independence of the audit of registered accountants
(1) Insufficient audit market demand
Thenone companies do not actively require them, and even exclude independence, objective and fair High -quality audit services. The vast majority of enterprises hire registered accountants not to improve their own business management or meet the needs of relevant information users, but to meet the requirements for compulsory audits of enterprises for listed announcements, government supervision, and annual inspection, loans, and taxation. This condition that the agency is not allowed to be entrusted to conduct audit made the company think that the audit of the Certified Public Accountant's audit is not great, and they are unwilling to accept audit, forming potential demand vacancies or shortcomings. There are also some customers starting from the fact that they have a low integrity office to serve or to change the threat of the registered accountant audit market for various reasons to serve them or to serve the fact that they are not high. The phenomenon of "inferior currency expels good coins" occurred.
(2) Evaluating the relationship of audit
The audit of the Certified Public Accountant is a trustee audit. The client, the audit unit, and the audit institution should be independent of each other, but from the actual situation, the company's company management authorities from the promoter or the controlling shareholder actually collect the decision -making power, management power, and supervision power of the company. The company's management authorities have changed from the auditing person to the audit client, that is, the management authorities hire audit institutions to audit, supervise and manage their actions, and determine matters such as the employment, renewal, and charging of the auditors. In this case, the criteria for choosing are likely to depend on the degree of "cooperation". The more the accounting firms that adhere to the independent audit principles and professional ethics, the easier it is to lose customers. This audit market environment that is separated from the audit independence often makes the accounting firm in a subordinate and passive position in the audit relationship between the accounting firm and the customer, and has economic dependence on the company's management authorities. Audit balance relationship.
(3) Operation disadvantages of accounting firms
1. Accounting firms do not have an independent impact. my country's accounting firms have been developed under the suspension system. Although the decourse restructuring has been completed and most agents have adopted a limited liability system organizational form, the damage and impact of the independence of accounting firms and registered accountants of the Hanging system still Without completely eliminated, the phenomenon of administrative intervention firms still exists. In fact, a part of the office has evolved into the economic interest relationship of the office and the original units to use, jointly revenue, and sharing income sharing. Some offices still rely on the original power of the original unit to engage in regional separation and department monopoly.
2. The impact of interest -driven of accounting firms. At present, accounting firms are aimed at chasing the maximum profits. The scale is generally small, the number of customers is not large, and the internal management is yet to be strengthened. Poor abilities, awareness of making money than service awareness, and not much concern for potential risks. A lot of facts prove that when the accounting firm and the registered accountant's own economic interests and audit independence have contradictions and conflicts, it is difficult to ask registered accountants to see their own interests or abandon their own interests. Independence and authenticity of accounting information.
3. The impact of the audit charging of accounting firms. As a unit of independent accounting and self -made profit and loss, the accounting firm must not consider cost and benefits when undertaking business. At present, each audit report is the result of the bargaining of the accounting firm and the audited unit. The entrusting person to purchase "audit" to pursue the maximum interest, and the registered accountant assumes risks and loses independence to obtain interests. Moreover, with the development of the economy, the audit market has gradually shifted from the seller's market to the buyer's market, which has led to a certain extent to lead the disorderly competition of accounting firms. In order to occupy a market share and maintain customers, some accounting firms will not hesitate to reduce audit charges and pay the payment. Reprint and commission, obey the corporate management authorities, lead to the loss of audit independence.
4. The influence of "mixed" operation of accounting firms. The business scope of accounting firms mainly includes non -certification businesses such as audit business, accounting consulting, and accounting services. Accounting firms and registered accountants provide accounting consulting and accounting services to the audit unit. They must focus on the benefits of the customer, meet the various needs of customers, and even use their own skill to control accounting standards and the ability of the accounting system to help customers help customers Create false accounting materials. At the same time, the certified public accountant also audited the accounting materials generated by his own license or handled, and it is difficult to guarantee the reliability and independence of the results. Moreover, the income of the accounting firm provided related services such as non -certification business is considerable, and the income of audit services is relatively low. Because the firm is afraid of losing the benefits brought by the non -certified business office, it may be possible to be a compromise. With one side, it is difficult for the firm to express audit opinions independently, objectively, and fairly in the case of collecting high non -certified business service fees.
(4) Registered accountants and customers are not independent
Plinking accountants should be independent of customer companies and their parent companies, subsidiaries, and joint ventures and joint ventures. If you have direct and indirect economic benefits, related relationships, and long -term exchanges between the individual of the registered accountant and the customer, it will inevitably affect the independence of the audit. Once the Certified Public Accountants and customers have some kinds of interests, it may be difficult to make objective and fair judgments.
(5) The supervision mechanism and laws and regulations are not sound
If the external quality control mechanism, the Certified Publicity Association is a certain extent the administrative department of the Ministry of Finance. There are many administrative affairs and insufficient full -time personnel, so it is difficult to conduct a comprehensive inspection and control of the audit quality of thousands of current accounting firms in my country. In terms of internal quality control mechanisms, my country has promulgated audit standards for Certified Public Accountants. However, from the current quality of employees and the composition of accounting firms and the overall practice environment, it is difficult to achieve the expected results through industry self -discipline.
Under the current system, the chance of being discovered is still small. From the perspective of the huge differences between income and risk, registered accountants have a gambling mentality, and they also indulge in illegal acts of registered accountants It increased the risk of practice and affected the accounting firms and registered accountants to maintain independent and objective self -control.
. The countermeasures for improving the independence of the audit of the registered accountant
(1) Standardize the audit market
Improve your own management and promote the motivation of enterprise development, truly supervise the supervision of audit from internal requirements, and block your own loopholes. At the same time, my country should also cultivate public investors' investment awareness. Most investors do not pay attention to the quality of the financial information of listed companies and do not care about the quality of the certified public accountant's practice. Therefore, the management authorities of the listed company do not hire the pressure of "high independence" offices, and even in order to achieve the purpose of "profit manipulation". Instead, they need "low independence" audit services. If investors can rationally use the financial accounting statements that have been registered for accountants to make investment decisions, they will force the company to manage the authorities to hire highly independent offices for auditing and verification.
(2) Balanced audit relationship
The country should establish a comprehensive corporate governance structure, protect the interests of public shareholders, and strengthen the role of board of directors, supervisors, and supervisory enterprises. The practice of hiring accounting firms by operators, and truly independence between clients, auditing units, and audit institutions.
(3) Improve the operation of the accounting firm
1. Ensure the independence of accounting firms. my country should deepen corporate reform, effectively regulate the government's demand for statutory business, improve audit relations, streamline the order of audit demand, and give the firm to truly operate autonomy, and fundamentally guarantee the independence of the audit business of the accounting firm. 2. Optimize the organizational system of accounting firms. Develop a partnership office, implement the property registration system for partners, investigate the liability for compensation to natural persons, also establish and improve the vocational insurance system, improve relevant laws and regulations, and ensure that investors can get compensation. At the same time, through the market competition mechanism, the strong combination and weak merger of accounting firms are encouraged. Through the merger and reorganization, it not only objectively enhances the scale of the accounting firm, but also enhances the ability to resist the pressure from customers, prevent risks and participate in market competitiveness, but also helps to break the division and regional monopoly.
3. Standardize the audit charges of accounting firms. my country should prevent the disorderly competition of the audit market, standardize audit charges, and publicly charge the fees in accordance with the prescribed standards to prevent or have charges.
4. Adjust the audit scope of accounting affairs. Mixed operations are the primary causes of destroying the independence of registered accountants. When the registered accountant is involved in the management of the enterprise, it will inevitably affect it to maintain independence, objective and fair. However, the prohibition of registered accountants from engaging in non -certification business is not in line with my country's national conditions, and it is not conducive to expanding the business scope of accounting firms and accelerating the construction of the industry. The ideal approach should be regulated by non -certification business. For example, the audit business and non -certification business are borne by different accountants.
5. Implement audit appointment system. The Certified Public Accountants Association establishes the resource library of accounting firms to classify the accounting firms, and then assign audit through random extraction and appointment. Although this will increase the audit cost, the audit fee can be increased accordingly. A reasonable guidance price should be formulated to ensure the independence of registered accountants from the audit unit.
(4) Ensuring the independence between the registered accountant and the customer
The country should strengthen the independence of the registered accountant in practice. If the partner or shareholder of the accounting firm or shareholders is not independent of the audited unit, the accounting firm cannot undertake the audit and other appraisal business of the audited unit; Accountants should avoid.
(5) Strengthen supervision
This my country should formulate a severe punishment system and mechanism, so that the responsibility of the offenders should be greater than the expected illegal income, increasing its cost of violations, and thus Effectively curb and deteriorate illegal acts. Specific measures: First, to give the Chinese Certified Public Accountants Association for punishment, you can set up the Certified Public Accountants Disciplinary Committee under the Certified Public Accountants Association to supervise and handle various cases of violations of laws and disciplines; Once a serious violation of laws and disciplinary cases were verified seriously and exposed to the public, the whole society jointly supervised the practice of registered accountants. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the supervision and guidance of the practice environment of the accounting firm and promote fair competition. From strengthening industry self -discipline and other people, strengthen the management of accounting firms and registered accountants, strengthen the industry's interbank review system, and implement the independence of registered accountants audit.
Abstract: This article combines my country's actual situation and believes that the company's governance structure is incomplete, non -audit business, and the organizational structure and scale of registered accounting firms, and the lack of severe post -after -to -after -punishment mechanism is an important factor that affects the independence of the audit of registered accountants in my country. It is proposed to improve the independence of audit, that is, regulate the company's governance structure, clarify the audit entrustment mechanism, standardize non -audit business, reform the organization form of accounting firms, expand the size of the firm, and establish a severe post -after -after punishment mechanism.
The keywords: influence; registered accountant; independence; factor; countermeasures
n n registered accountant audit is a powerful defense line that maintains the stability of social and economic order and commercial justice, auditing independence nature It is the cornerstone of the defense line; losing independence, the value of the audit opinion is very small, and the social efficacy of the audit occupation does not exist. From the Enron incident to the Yinguangxia incident, it highlights the disadvantages brought about by the independent defects of the CPA. Through the three -dimensional reflection of these audit failure cases, we should realize that independence is the foundation of registered accountants to settle down. Only when the accounting industry is strictly disciplined and improves the understanding and requirements of independence, the integrity of the industry can recover and carry forward.
. Factors that affect the independence of the audit of the Certified Public Accountants
(1) The impact of the incomplete corporate governance structure on independence
The current, in the current, in the current, in the current, in the current, in the current, in the current, in the current, in the current, in the current, at the current, in the current, at the current, in the current, it is currently. Among the listed companies in my country, state -owned shares are in an absolute control position in most cases. Its shareholders are generally the administrative department at the higher level. This type of shareholding is a virtual subject. An internal motivation, which causes the state -owned shareholders' supervision and restraint mechanism of the company's operators. For many small and small shareholders, assuming they are rational people in the market economy. For the sake of maximizing their own interests, they will not spend time and energy to supervise the board of directors of the company. Their rational choice is "waiting." In this way, the authority of the shareholders 'meeting is difficult to exercise, and the company's directors have not been realized by the shareholders' meeting. They lack the fundamental motivation to safeguard the interests of shareholders, and the board of directors cannot play a control of the company's management management. At the same time, many company managers themselves are chairman or important members of the board of directors. In fact, operators from the shareholders of the shareholders actually collect the decision -making power, management power, and supervision power of the company. In this case, the trial client and the auditing person have a "unity" tendency. In addition, in my country's state -owned enterprises, due to unclear property rights, there is also a phenomenon of "ownership absence". It can be seen that the legal person governance structure of my country's company is invalid. As the role of the auditor, the corporate management authorities have also played the role of the audit client, and determined that all matters such as the selection, renewal, and remuneration of the registered accountant distorted the audit client and the auditor The relationship with the three auditors has destroyed the independence of the audit of the Certified Public Accountant, increasing the possibility of the failure of the audit of the Certified Public Accountants, and directly reduced the public's trust in the audit of the registered accountant. [1]
(2) The impact of non -audit business on independence
registered accountants to provide non -audit business (such as accounting services, tax agency, management consulting) Independence has an impact, and has been speaking for a long time. The author believes that the CPA provides the same enterprise both the legal audit business and the non -audit business, and will be involved in corporate affairs too much, thereby forming an intimate relationship with the customer management authorities that "can only be possible and not speak". Although the registered accountant is not a decision maker, he is a participant in the decision -making process. In the entire process of proposal, feasibility study, and judgment, the CPA has always had close contact with the management authorities. This contact will lead to a subtle interaction between the formation of a personnel and the management authorities, thereby weakening the independence of the registered accountant. In addition, the registered accountant conducts non -audit business, and its quality can be measured with customer operating results; at the same time, the management authorities also evaluate him based on the standards of the appraisal manager. In other words, the reputation of the Certified Public Accountant depends on his results. Then, the registered accountant will inevitably have financial interests with customers in the results of non -audit business. In this case, the independence of registered accountants is inevitable. As Mutz and Charaf said: "Once a suggestion for the company's decision -making, the interdependence of consultants and the interests between the company began to develop. As a successful consultant, he has an economy with the company because of his reputation. The interest relationship. Moreover, this interest relationship is no different from the interests of full -time staff, only the difference in quantity. "
(3) The impact of the organizational structure and scale of the registered accounting firm on independence
At present, it is measured from the perspective of organization independence. It is in a formal independent and substantial state. The specific manifestation of the restructuring accounting firm has a limited accumulation of its own funds and the poor ability to resist risks, which has caused it to have a certain dependence with the previous units. This kind of open -minded relationship often forms dark box operations. Needless to say, the accounting firm's organization relationship is not independent. At best, it can only become a control organization for the unit industry or regional sector. Once the industry and regional interests contradict with other interests, it is naturally difficult for the accounting firm The restraint of its own interests will be tilted with objective and fair balance.
The size of the firm is also an important factor affecting the independence of audit. my country's accounting firms are small in size. Although many accounting firms have experienced the market integration driven by many governments in the process of developing from small to large, the scale has expanded, but the overall scale is still far from international. Due to the small scale of accounting firms and low business income, not only the normal audit business is difficult to standardize, but also the large -scale accounting firms audited large companies, which will inevitably rely on large customers in terms of economy. Customers controlled by insiders made it difficult to independently, objectively, and impartially expressing audit opinions, which led to the lack of independence of the registered accountant occupation. [3]
(4) The lack of severe post -after -after punishment mechanism has also had a certain impact on independence
The last line of defense of the punishment mechanism to ensure the independence of the audit. The weak punishment mechanism will make the expected income of accounting fraud greater than the expected cost. The office will take risks with fluke. The relevant provisions of the relevant laws in my country is relatively complete, and the relevant terms of criminal responsibility and civil liability, especially civil liability, are too general and do not have operability. The imperfections of the law and the lack of judicial interpretation of it have caused criminal responsibility and civil liability to be in accordance with the law, which weakens audit independence.
. Countermeasures to improve the independence of registered accountants
(1) Standardize the company's governance structure, clarify the audit attorney The basic characteristic of the governance structure is the balance of power based on the decentralization of property rights. Therefore, the diversified property structure with legal person's shares as the main body can be established, which can support the registered accountant to maintain independence from the system. The specific method is to establish a diversified property structure with legal person stocks as the mainstay, and replacing state -owned shares in the listed company with legal person shares to establish a company shares including investment banks, investment funds, investment companies, individuals, and countries. The property right structure solves the situation of the state -owned shares formed in the corporate governance structure. This diversified property power structure can form a constraint mechanism for operators, strengthen the control of shareholders, and reduce the defects of "insider control". In addition, you can further improve the independent director system and the audit committee system, and the audit committee selects an accounting firm; determines the scope and remuneration of the service provided by the accounting firm, meet with the accounting firm on a regular basis, understand the audit process and the problems found in the audit, help help Solve conflicts between accounting firms and management departments. Therefore, the agency relationship of audit entrustment is creened, the phenomenon of the combination of the auditors and the auditors, and improving the independence of audit.
(2) Standardize non -audit business
Hing that the non -audit business has an impact on independence, it cannot be prohibited from registered accountants to engage in non -audit business. Because this is not in line with my country's national conditions, and it is not conducive to expanding the scope of business choices in accounting firms and accelerating industry construction. The ideal approach should be regulated by non -audit business. For example, the audit business and non -audit business are borne by different accountants. This approach can avoid the consistent non -audit business that consistent with the interests of the Certified Public Accountants and the interests of the client affects the independence of the registered accountant. Western countries' large and medium -sized accounting firms generally separate the audit department and the consulting department within its internal responsibility.
(3) Reform the form of an organization of accounting firms, expand the size of the firm
The country should vigorously promote the transition from the limited liability system to the partnership system. The partnership system can best reflect the professional characteristics of the registered accountant industry, and meet the requirements of the public. It is also the most common organizational form in the world. Partnership or soley system is also the main form of professional practice. Adopting a partnership, the interests of partners are closely related to the performance and fate of the firm, and more stress and motivation to strengthen risk, responsibility, quality and brand awareness, and naturally can also resist the improper will from the company's operators.
Secondly, from the perspective of the scale of accounting firms, the economic interests of large accounting firms on customers with large business volume are smaller than small accounting firms. When the client asked the accounting firm to issue an illegal audit report and threatened the entrustment, the APIC Firm refused to have a relatively small economic loss brought by the request. Moreover, the Treasury Firm pays more attention to long -term development, and they care more about their professional reputation, and this reputation is the true cornerstone of their long -term stable economic sources. And small accounting firms pay more attention to short -term economic benefits, and will tend to give up their own independence because they are afraid of losing their main economic sources. [4]
(4) Establish a severe post -post punishment mechanism
In the punishment of registered accountants for fraud, so that there is a law to be rely on Law enforcement must be strict and illegal. The first is to increase the loss of independence of registered accountants, violate the judicial intervention of criminal law, and investigate the criminal liability of illegal registered accountants. The second is that the judicial organs should quickly study and formulate a specific dictatorship of civil compensation liability for the failure of the audit of the Certified Public Accountants so that there is a law to rely on. The third is to hurry up the construction of corporate management authorities, securities underwriting agencies, legal advisers, major shareholders, insider trading and shares manipulator, and even government securities regulatory agencies. Essence
The reference
[1] An Guangshi. Research on ways to improve my country's registered accountant audit independence [J]. Financial research, 2003, (4): 118-122.
[2] Zhou Chaolun. On the factors and countermeasures that affect the independence of registered accountants [J]. Economic issue exploration, 2003, (6): 83 ~ 85.
[3] He Liping. Strengthen the study of the independence of registered accountants [J]. North Economic and Trade, 2004, (4): 59 ~ 60.
[4] Xiong Feng. Independence: The soul of the Certified Public Accountants [J]. Hubei Finance, 2003, (7): 36 ～ 37.
I. Factors that affect the independence of the audit of registered accountants
(1) Insufficient audit market demand
Thenone companies do not actively require them, and even exclude independence, objective and fair High -quality audit services. The vast majority of enterprises hire registered accountants not to improve their own business management or meet the needs of relevant information users, but to meet the requirements for compulsory audits of enterprises for listed announcements, government supervision, and annual inspection, loans, and taxation. This condition that the agency is not allowed to be entrusted to conduct audit made the company think that the audit of the Certified Public Accountant's audit is not great, and they are unwilling to accept audit, forming potential demand vacancies or shortcomings. There are also some customers starting from the fact that they have a low integrity office to serve or to change the threat of the registered accountant audit market for various reasons to serve them or to serve the fact that they are not high. The phenomenon of "inferior currency expels good coins" occurred.
(2) Evaluating the relationship of audit
The audit of the Certified Public Accountant is a trustee audit. The client, the audit unit, and the audit institution should be independent of each other, but from the actual situation, the company's company management authorities from the promoter or the controlling shareholder actually collect the decision -making power, management power, and supervision power of the company. The company's management authorities have changed from the auditing person to the audit client, that is, the management authorities hire audit institutions to audit, supervise and manage their actions, and determine matters such as the employment, renewal, and charging of the auditors. In this case, the criteria for choosing are likely to depend on the degree of "cooperation". The more the accounting firms that adhere to the independent audit principles and professional ethics, the easier it is to lose customers. This audit market environment that is separated from the audit independence often makes the accounting firm in a subordinate and passive position in the audit relationship between the accounting firm and the customer, and has economic dependence on the company's management authorities. Audit balance relationship.
(3) Operation disadvantages of accounting firms
1. Accounting firms do not have an independent impact. my country's accounting firms have been developed under the suspension system. Although the decourse restructuring has been completed and most agents have adopted a limited liability system organizational form, the damage and impact of the independence of accounting firms and registered accountants of the Hanging system still Without completely eliminated, the phenomenon of administrative intervention firms still exists. In fact, a part of the office has evolved into the economic interest relationship of the office and the original units to use, jointly revenue, and sharing income sharing. Some offices still rely on the original power of the original unit to engage in regional separation and department monopoly.
2. The impact of interest -driven of accounting firms. At present, accounting firms are aimed at chasing the maximum profits. The scale is generally small, the number of customers is not large, and the internal management is yet to be strengthened. Poor abilities, awareness of making money than service awareness, and not much concern for potential risks. A lot of facts prove that when the accounting firm and the registered accountant's own economic interests and audit independence have contradictions and conflicts, it is difficult to ask registered accountants to see their own interests or abandon their own interests. Independence and authenticity of accounting information.
3. The impact of the audit charging of accounting firms. As a unit of independent accounting and self -made profit and loss, the accounting firm must not consider cost and benefits when undertaking business. At present, each audit report is the result of the bargaining of the accounting firm and the audited unit. The entrusting person to purchase "audit" to pursue the maximum interest, and the registered accountant assumes risks and loses independence to obtain interests. Moreover, with the development of the economy, the audit market has gradually shifted from the seller's market to the buyer's market, which has led to a certain extent to lead the disorderly competition of accounting firms. In order to occupy a market share and maintain customers, some accounting firms will not hesitate to reduce audit charges and pay the payment. Reprint and commission, obey the corporate management authorities, lead to the loss of audit independence.
4. The influence of "mixed" operation of accounting firms. The business scope of accounting firms mainly includes non -certification businesses such as audit business, accounting consulting, and accounting services. Accounting firms and registered accountants provide accounting consulting and accounting services to the audit unit. They must focus on the benefits of the customer, meet the various needs of customers, and even use their own skill to control accounting standards and the ability of the accounting system to help customers help customers Create false accounting materials. At the same time, the certified public accountant also audited the accounting materials generated by his own license or handled, and it is difficult to guarantee the reliability and independence of the results. Moreover, the income of the accounting firm provided related services such as non -certification business is considerable, and the income of audit services is relatively low. Because the firm is afraid of losing the benefits brought by the non -certified business office, it may be possible to be a compromise. With one side, it is difficult for the firm to express audit opinions independently, objectively, and fairly in the case of collecting high non -certified business service fees.
(4) Registered accountants and customers are not independent
Plinking accountants should be independent of customer companies and their parent companies, subsidiaries, and joint ventures and joint ventures. If you have direct and indirect economic benefits, related relationships, and long -term exchanges between the individual of the registered accountant and the customer, it will inevitably affect the independence of the audit. Once the Certified Public Accountants and customers have some kinds of interests, it may be difficult to make objective and fair judgments.
(5) The supervision mechanism and laws and regulations are not sound
If the external quality control mechanism, the Certified Publicity Association is a certain extent the administrative department of the Ministry of Finance. There are many administrative affairs and insufficient full -time personnel, so it is difficult to conduct a comprehensive inspection and control of the audit quality of thousands of current accounting firms in my country. In terms of internal quality control mechanisms, my country has promulgated audit standards for Certified Public Accountants. However, from the current quality of employees and the composition of accounting firms and the overall practice environment, it is difficult to achieve the expected results through industry self -discipline.
Under the current system, the chance of being discovered is still small. From the perspective of the huge differences between income and risk, registered accountants have a gambling mentality, and they also indulge in illegal acts of registered accountants It increased the risk of practice and affected the accounting firms and registered accountants to maintain independent and objective self -control.
. The countermeasures for improving the independence of the audit of the registered accountant
(1) Standardize the audit market
Improve your own management and promote the motivation of enterprise development, truly supervise the supervision of audit from internal requirements, and block your own loopholes. At the same time, my country should also cultivate public investors' investment awareness. Most investors do not pay attention to the quality of the financial information of listed companies and do not care about the quality of the certified public accountant's practice. Therefore, the management authorities of the listed company do not hire the pressure of "high independence" offices, and even in order to achieve the purpose of "profit manipulation". Instead, they need "low independence" audit services. If investors can rationally use the financial accounting statements that have been registered for accountants to make investment decisions, they will force the company to manage the authorities to hire highly independent offices for auditing and verification.
(2) Balanced audit relationship
The country should establish a comprehensive corporate governance structure, protect the interests of public shareholders, and strengthen the role of board of directors, supervisors, and supervisory enterprises. The practice of hiring accounting firms by operators, and truly independence between clients, auditing units, and audit institutions.
(3) Improve the operation of the accounting firm
1. Ensure the independence of accounting firms. my country should deepen corporate reform, effectively regulate the government's demand for statutory business, improve audit relations, streamline the order of audit demand, and give the firm to truly operate autonomy, and fundamentally guarantee the independence of the audit business of the accounting firm. 2. Optimize the organizational system of accounting firms. Develop a partnership office, implement the property registration system for partners, investigate the liability for compensation to natural persons, also establish and improve the vocational insurance system, improve relevant laws and regulations, and ensure that investors can get compensation. At the same time, through the market competition mechanism, the strong combination and weak merger of accounting firms are encouraged. Through the merger and reorganization, it not only objectively enhances the scale of the accounting firm, but also enhances the ability to resist the pressure from customers, prevent risks and participate in market competitiveness, but also helps to break the division and regional monopoly.
3. Standardize the audit charges of accounting firms. my country should prevent the disorderly competition of the audit market, standardize audit charges, and publicly charge the fees in accordance with the prescribed standards to prevent or have charges.
4. Adjust the audit scope of accounting affairs. Mixed operations are the primary causes of destroying the independence of registered accountants. When the registered accountant is involved in the management of the enterprise, it will inevitably affect it to maintain independence, objective and fair. However, the prohibition of registered accountants from engaging in non -certification business is not in line with my country's national conditions, and it is not conducive to expanding the business scope of accounting firms and accelerating the construction of the industry. The ideal approach should be regulated by non -certification business. For example, the audit business and non -certification business are borne by different accountants.
5. Implement audit appointment system. The Certified Public Accountants Association establishes the resource library of accounting firms to classify the accounting firms, and then assign audit through random extraction and appointment. Although this will increase the audit cost, the audit fee can be increased accordingly. A reasonable guidance price should be formulated to ensure the independence of registered accountants from the audit unit.
(4) Ensuring the independence between the registered accountant and the customer
The country should strengthen the independence of the registered accountant in practice. If the partner or shareholder of the accounting firm or shareholders is not independent of the audited unit, the accounting firm cannot undertake the audit and other appraisal business of the audited unit; Accountants should avoid.
(5) Strengthen supervision
This my country should formulate a severe punishment system and mechanism, so that the responsibility of the offenders should be greater than the expected illegal income, increasing its cost of violations, and thus Effectively curb and deteriorate illegal acts. Specific measures: First, to give the Chinese Certified Public Accountants Association for punishment, you can set up the Certified Public Accountants Disciplinary Committee under the Certified Public Accountants Association to supervise and handle various cases of violations of laws and disciplines; Once a serious violation of laws and disciplinary cases were verified seriously and exposed to the public, the whole society jointly supervised the practice of registered accountants. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the supervision and guidance of the practice environment of the accounting firm and promote fair competition. From strengthening industry self -discipline and other people, strengthen the management of accounting firms and registered accountants, strengthen the industry's interbank review system, and implement the independence of registered accountants audit.