外文翻譯--會計行業(yè)監(jiān)督、審計獨立性、財務報告問題

1、中文 3300 字，1950 單詞Source: David M. walker. Accounting Profession: Oversight, Auditor Independence, and Financial Reporting Issues [N].GAO-02-742R Accounting ProfessionIssues,2002:1-12.外文文獻翻譯原文:Accounting Profession: Overs

2、ight, Auditor Independence, and Financial 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 ounting

3、profession, auditor independence, and selected financial reporting matters. The sudden and largely unexpected bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation (Enron) and other large corporations’ financial reporting restatements hav

4、e raised questions about the soundness of the current self-regulatory and financial reporting systems an resulted in substantial losses to employees, shareholders, and other investors. These events have also raised a ran

5、ge 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 profession’s current sel

6、f-regulatory system for auditors involves many players in a fragmented system that is not well coordinated, involves certain conflicts of interest, lacks munication , has a funding mechanism that is dependent upon volunt

7、ary contributions from the accounting profession, and has a discipline system that is largely perceived as being ineffective.(Enclosure 1 serves to illustrate plexity of the current system of regulation and oversight and

8、 the stakeholders who rely on the system.)Simply stated, the current self-regulatory system is broken and oversight of the self regulatory system by the Securities and mission (SEC) has not been effective in addressing t

9、hese issues to adequately protect the public interest. As result, given the important role that independent auditor play and various inherent problems in the current self-regulatory system, direct government intervention

10、 is needed to statutorily create a new body to oversee the accounting profession’s responsibilities for auditing panies. This step is necessary in order to increase the effectiveness of the audit process and to rebuild p

11、ublic confidence. The new body 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 Profe

12、ssion Issues fulfill its responsibilities, and have sufficient operating flexibility to attract and retain quality leadership and supporting staff. On the other hand, the concerns relating to the timeliness, relevancy an

13、d 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 adequate and independent sourc

14、e of funding for its operations, and reporting periodically to the Congress in connection with certain FASB matters. If such an approach is not essful in achieving the expected improvements in the financial reporting mod

15、el in a timely and effective manner, the government 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 al

16、so represent interrelated keystones to protecting the public’s interest. Failure in any of these areas can place astrain on the entire system. Consequently, potential actions should be guided by the fundamental principle

17、s of having the right (i.e., 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 of any mandato

18、ry rotation of accounting firms that audit panies 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 indepen

19、dent sources of funding by virtue of mandatory, not voluntary, payments. Public accounting firms and audit partners that audit financial statements, reports, or other documents of panies that are required to be filed wit

20、h the SEC should be required to register with the new body. The new body should have the authority to set annual registration fees and fees for services such as peer reviews of public accounting firms. The fees should be

21、 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 in enhanc

22、ing 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 issuers’ fin

23、ancial statements, which relies in large part on the role of independent auditors, serves to encourage investment in securities issued by panies. This sense of confidence depends on reasonable investors perceiving audito

24、rs as independent expert professionals who have neither mutual, nor conflicts of, interests in connection with the entities they are auditing. Accordingly, investors and other users expect auditors to bring to the financ

25、ial reporting process integrity, independence, objectivity, and petence, and to prevent the issuance of misleading financial statements.Enron’s failure and certain other recent events have raised questions concerning whe

26、ther 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 a

27、nd costly business failures, such as the savings and loan crisis. Issues debated over the years continue to focus on auditor independence concerns and the auditor’s role and responsibilities. Public accounting firms prov

28、iding non audit 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 collected by Enron’s independent auditor for non audit services. Auditors

29、 have the capability of performing a range of valuable services for their clients, and providing certain non audit services can ultimately be beneficial to investors and other interested parties. However, in some circums

30、tances, it is not appropriate for auditors to perform both audit and certain non audit services for the same client. In these circumstances, the auditor, the client, or both will have to make a choice as to which of thes

31、e services the auditor will provide. These concepts, which we strongly believe are in the public’s interest, are reflected in the revisions to audit orind ependence requirements for government audits, which GAO recently

32、issued as part of Government Auditing Standards. The new independence standard has gone through an extensive deliberative process over several years, including extensive ments and input from my Advisory Council on Govern

33、ment Auditing Standards. The standard, among other things, toughens the rules associated with provid in gnonaudit services and includes a principle-based approach to addressing this issue, supplemented with certain safeg