会计行业：监督、审计独立性、财务报告问题【外文翻译】

1、外文文献翻译原文:accounting profession: oversight, auditor independence, andfinancial reporting issuesthis letter responds to your recent request that we provide our views regarding what steps the congress should consider taking to strengthen oversight of the accounting profession, auditor independence, and

2、 selected financial reporting matters. the sudden and largely unexpected bankniptcy of the enron corporation (enron) and other large corporations9 financial reporting restatements have raised questions about the soundness of the current self-regulatory and financial reporting systems and resulted in

3、 substantial losses to employees, shareholders, and other investors. these events have also raised a range of questions regarding how such dramatic and unexpected events can happen and the role and capacities of various key players under the existing systems.the issues surrounding the accounting pro

4、fession's current self-regulatory system for auditors involves many players in a fragmented system that is not well coordinated, involves certain conflicts of interest, lacks effective communication, has a funding mechanism that is dependent upon voluntary contributions from the accounting profe

5、ssion, and has a discipline system that is largely perceived as being ineffective (enclosure 1 serves to illustrate the complexity of the current system of regulation and oversight and the stakeholders who rely on the system.)simply stated, the current self-regulatory system is broken and oversight

6、of the self regulatory system by the securities and exchange commission (sec) has not been effective in addressing these issues to adequately protect the public interest. as a result, given the important role that independent auditor play and various inherent problems in the current self-regulatory

7、system, direct government intervention is needed to statutorily create a new body to oversee the accounting profession's responsibilities for auditing public companies. this step is necessary in order to increase the effectiveness of the audit process and to rebuild public confidence. the new bo

8、dy should be independent of the accounting profession, have significant standards-setting, oversight, and disciplinary authority, be adequately resourced to page 2 gao-02-742r accounting profession issues fulfill its responsibilities, and have sufficient operating flexibility to attract and retain q

9、uality leadership and supporting staffon the other hand, the concerns relating to the timeliness, relevancy and transparency of the financial reporting model may be best addressed through the sec working more closely with the financial accounting standards board (fasb), assuring that the fasb has an

10、 adequate and independent source of funding for its operations, and reporting periodically to the congress in connection with certain fasb matters. if such an approach is not successful in achieving the expected improvements in the financial reporting model in a timely and effective manner, the gove

11、rnment can then take further action.the areas of oversight of the accounting profession, auditor independence, and financial reporting are important on their own, but they also represent interrelated keystones to protecting the public interest. failure in any of these areas can place a strain on the

12、 entire system. consequently, potential actions should be guided by the fundamental principles of having the right incentives for the key parties to do the right thing, adequate transparency to provide reasonable assurance that the right thing will be done, and full accountability if the right thing

13、 is not done. these three fundamental principles represent a system of controls that should operate in conjunction with a policy of placing special attention on areas of greatest risk.new body needed to regulate and oversee the accounting professionenrons failure and a variety of other recent events

14、 have brought a direct focus on the ineffectiveness of the current system of regulation and oversight of the accounting profession. independent auditors have a key role to play in protecting shareholders and the public，s interest in our capital market system. they hold a public trust and their actio

15、ns or inactions can have significant implications on investors, creditors and other users of financial reports. in this regard, auditors must place additional emphasis on whether financial statements are "fairly presented in all material respects in addition to their traditional emphasis on whe

16、ther such financial statements are prepared "in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. fair presentation requires providing reasonable assurance that major value and risk elements are appropriately reflected in the financial statements and related notes in an understandable f

17、ashion. it also requires employing an "economic substance versus "transaction fomt approach to important accounting and reporting issues.many proposals are before the congress to establish a new body to regulate and/or oversee accounting firms that audit public companies. in our view, the

18、congress should consider the following key factors or criteria in establishing this new body, each of which is critical to its likely effectiveness.the new body should have direct responsibility and authority for certain critical functions in connection with public accounting firms and their members

19、 who audit public companies. these include: establishing professional standards (independence standards; quality control standards, auditing standards, and attestation standards). the new body should be authorized to issue professional standards. in that respect, the new body should also be authoriz

20、ed to affirmatively adopt, at its discretion, professional standards, in whole or in part, promulgated by another standard-setting body. in the area of new standards, the new body may choose to require auditor reporting on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting in connection

21、with audits of public companies, which is currently not required under existing auditing standards. it may also decide not to affirmatively adopt a standard developed by another standard-setting body but instead issue a modified version of the standard. monitoring public accounting firms for complia

22、nce with applicable professional standards. for efficiency, except for quality reviews of the largest firms and those firms in which the nature of the audits they perform pose a higher level of risk as determined by the new body, the new body should be authorized to use contractors or accounting fir

23、ms to perform quality reviews in accordance with standards and processes set by the new body. however, the new body should have final approval authority in connection with any quality review engagements performed by any contractors or accounting firms.investigating and disciplining public accounting

24、 firms and/or individual auditors of public accounting firms who do not comply with applicable professional standards. investigations and disciplinary actions of the new body should be in addition to existing investigatory and disciplinary authority that already exists with the sec and state boards

25、of accountancy. establishing various auditor rotation requirements for key public company audit engagement personnel (ie，primary and second partners, and engagement managers). related to this function, we believe the new body should undertake a study and report to the congress on the pros and cons o

26、f any mandatory rotation of accounting firms that audit public companies before taking any action with regard to establishing requirements for any mandatory rotation of accounting firms.funding for the new bodythe new body should have independent sources of funding by virtue of mandatory, not volunt

27、ary, payments public accounting firms and audit partners that audit financial statements, reports, or other documents of public companies that are required to be filed with the sec should be required to register with the new body. the new body should have the authority to set annual registration fee

28、s and fees for services such as peer reviews of public accounting firms. the fees should be set to recover full costs and sustain the operations of the new body.auditor independencefor over 70 years, the public accounting profession, through its independent audit function, has played a critical role

29、 in enhancing a financial reporting process that has supported the effective functioning of our domestic capital markets, which are widely viewed as the best in the world the public's confidence in the reliability of issuers5 financial statements, which relies in large part on the role of indepe

30、ndent auditors, serves to encourage investment in securities issued by public companies. this sense of confidence depends on reasonable investors perceiving auditors as independent expert professionals who have neither mutual, nor conflicts of, interests in connection with the entities they are audi

31、ting accordingly, investors and other users expect auditors to bring to the financial reporting process integrity, independence, objectivity, and technical competence, and to prevent the issuance of misleading financial statements.enron，s failure and certain other recent events have raised questions

32、 concerning whether auditors are living up to the expectations of the investing public; however, similar questions have been raised over a number of years due to significant restatements of financial statements and certain unexpected and costly business failures, such as the savings and loan crisis.

33、 issues debated over the years continue to focus on auditor independence concerns and the auditor role and responsibilities. public accounting firms providing nonaudit services to their audit client is one of the issues that has again surfaced by enron，s failure and the large amount of annual fees c

34、ollected by enrons independent auditor for nonaudit services.auditors have the capability of performing a range of valuable services for their clients, and providing certain nonaudit services can ultimately be beneficial to investors and other interested parties however, in some circumstances, it is

35、 not appropriate for auditors to perform both audit and certain nonaudit services for the same client. in these circumstances, the auditor, the client, or both will have to make a choice as to which of these services the auditor will provide. these concepts, which we strongly believe are in the publ

36、ic interest, are reflected in the revisions to auditor independence requirements for government audits, which gao recently issued as part of government auditing standards. the new independence standard has gone through an extensive deliberative process over several years, including extensive public

37、comments and input from my advisory council on government auditing standards. the standard, among other things, toughens the rules associated with providing nonaudit services and includes a principle-based approach to addressing this issue, supplemented with certain safeguards. the two overarching p

38、rinciples in the standard for nonaudit services are that: auditors should not perform management functions or make management decisions. auditors should not audit their own work or provide nonaudit services in situations where the amounts or services involved are significant or material to the subje

39、ct matter of the audit.both of the above principles should be applied using a substance over form doctrine. under the revised standard, auditors are allowed to perform certain nonaudit services provided the services do not violate the above principles; however, in most circumstances certain addition

40、al safeguards would have to be met. for example, (1) personnel who perform allowable nonaudit services would be precluded from performing any related audit work, (2) the auditors work could not be reduced beyond the level that would be appropriate if the nonaudit work were performed by another unrel

41、ated party, and (3) certain documentation and quality assurance requirements must be met. the new standard includes an express prohibition regarding auditors providing certain bookkeeping or record keeping services and limits payroll processing and certain other services, all of which are presently

42、permitted under current independence rules of the aicpa. however, our new standard allows the auditor to provide routine advice and technical assistance on an ongoing basis and without being subject to the additional safeguards-the focus of these changes to the government auditing standards is to be

43、tter serve the public interest and to maintain a high degree of integrity, objectivity, and independence for audits of government entities and entities that receive federal funding. however, these standards apply only to audits of federal entities and those organizations receiving federal funds, and

44、 not to audits of public companies. in the transmittal letter issuing the new independence standard, we expressed our hope that the aicpa would raise its independence standards to those contained in this new standard in order to eliminate any inconsistency between this standard and their current sta

45、ndards. the aicpa，s recent statement before another congressional committee that the aicpa will not oppose prohibitions on auditors providing certain nonaudit services seems to be a step in the right direction.source: david m. walker. accounting profession: oversight, auditor independence, and finan

46、cial reporting issues n .gao-02-742r accounting profession issues,2002:l-12.译文:会计行业:监督.审计独立性、财务报告问题这封信是对您最近要求我们提供意见的回复，以说明国会应在哪些环节强化 会计行业，审计师独立性的监督，并如何选定适当的财务报告等事宜。安然公司 和其它大型公司出人意料的对其财务报告的重述对雇员，股东和其他投资者造成 了重大损失并引起了人们对现行自我监管和财务报告制度的质疑。这些事件也反 应了这种突发事件是如何戏剧性的发生的和在现行制度下各种关键角色所能发 挥的作用。围绕会计界口前的自我监管制度来看，其屮

47、的问题除了包括审计师存在于一 个分散的系统中，而没有受到很好的协调之外，也包括若干利益的冲突，各自之 间缺乏有效的沟通，缺乏一个建立在自愿捐款上的统筹机制，还包括在很人程度 上被视为是无效的纪律机制。（附件1,就说明了管理和监督的复杂性以及利益 相关者对现行制度系统依赖。）简单的说，n前的自我监管制度已被打破，证券交易委员会的自我监管系统 在解决自我监管问题与充分保护公众利益的作用方面也不再和以前一样有效。i大i 此，考虑到独立审计师在自我监管系统中的重要作用及其目前木身存在的问题， 为了提高审计程序的有效性和重建公众的信心，创建一个由政府直接介入负责审 核上市公司会计的法定组织是十分有必要的

48、。新的法定组织机构应独立于会计行 业，具有制定重大标准，监督，纪律处分，以及根据美国审计总署第202页742 条会计行业问题來充分履行其职责的权利，凭借其足够的运营灵活性来吸引和留 住高索质的领导和支持人员。另一方面，证券交易委员会与财务会计委员会可以通过关注财务报告模式的 及时性，相关性和透明度这一方式让他们之间的工作更加紧密结合，以确保财务 会计准则委员会有足够和独立的资金来源的同时定期向国会报告某些关于财务 会计委员会的事项。如果这种做法不能提高财务报告模式的预期并及时有效的改 进工作，政府还可以采取进-步的行动。在会计的监督领域，审计师的独立性和财务报表本身是十分重要的，它们是 保障市

49、民利益相互关联的基石的代表。其屮任何一个环节发生故障都可以对整个 系统造成压力。因此，应该尽叮能采取行动来支持主要当事方遵循基本原则正确 做事的权利和足够的透明度来为其提供合理保证，并在未做好吋承担全部的责 任。这三个基木原则代表了一种以政策应对特别领域最大风险的控制系统。规范新体制和监督会计行业安然的失败和最近其他各种事件的爆发，宜接带来了对当今会计行业体制和 监管不利的聚焦。独立审计师在保护股东和公众对我们资本市场体系兴趣上发挥 着关键作用。他们拥有公众的信任，他们对财务报告的认可与否能对投资者，债 权人和其他用户产生重大影响。在这方面，审计人员除了把传统的重点放在财务 报表是否准备“按照

50、一般公认会计原则”上z外述必须对财务报表是否已“在 所有重要方面被公平的提出”做出更多的强调。列报要求在财务报表中反应主要 价值和风险因素并对其提供适当的公平的说明和合理的保证。当然，它也需耍运 用“经济实质”与“形式交易”的做法來解决重要的会计报告问题。许多关于上市公司审计的建议已提交国会，以用来建立一个新的机构去规范 和/或监督会计师事务所。我们认为，国会应考虑建立具有下列关键因素或标准 的新机构，其中的每一项都可能起到至关重要的作用。这个新机构应该具有会计师事务所及其成员谁负责审计有关上市公司的某 些关键职能的直接权力和责任。这些措施包扌舌：建立专业标准（独立标准，质量控制标准，审计标准

51、和认证标准）。新的 机构应当有制定专业标准的权利。在这方面，新的机构述应当通过授权肯定，由 另一个标准机构自行决定公布全部或部分专业标准。在新的标准方面，新的机构 可以选择耍求审计师对目前审计标准还没有运用的有关上市公司财务报告的内 部有效性进行审计。当然，它也可以决定不采用另一种准则机构制定的标准而是 发出标准的修改版本来代替。用适用的行业标准监测会计师事务所。为了提高效率，除了对最大企业进 行审查并对这些公司性质执行i大i审计而带來的更高风险水平的新机构进行确定 外，新的机构应当有权使用承包商或会计师事务所执行质量审查符合标准和程序 的新的机构设置。但是，新的机构应该有对任何承包商或会计师事务所进行审查 的最终批准权。调查和惩罚会计师