As discussed in the August 2012 publication Enhancing Audit Quality: Canadian Perspectives - Initiative Overview (see Appendix A thereof), audit quality is affected by many factors other than auditor independence. Indeed, many of the factors affecting audit quality involve parties other than auditors, their firms or the audit committees of companies they audit. Accordingly, considerations of the broader issues are outside the scope of this paper.
Following introductory and background chapters, this paper considers the meaning of “independence” (Chapter 3), and describes the current Canadian independence framework (Chapter 4) and the role of professional skepticism (Chapter 5). Next, the paper identifies and describes those global proposals in response to the financial crisis that are relevant to independence (Chapter 6). Guiding principles for evaluation of these global proposals adopted by the IWG are noted (Chapter 7). The paper concludes with an evaluation of the relevant global proposals and the consensus reached by the IWG on each of the proposals (Chapter 8).
To learn more about this joint CICA-CPAB initiative, see “Enhancing Audit Quality: Canadian Perspectives.”
