Bakgrund: Penningtvätt har under de senaste åren ökat och fått mycket uppmärksamhet. Nya lagar och regleringar med syfte att förebygga och bekämpa penningtvätt har tagits fram. För att uppnå målen har ett flertal organisationer skapats på nationell och international nivå. Flera tillsynsmyndigheter har fått uppdraget att medverka i bekämpning av penningtvätt. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka revisorns förhållnings- sätt till lagen om penningtvätt. Studien syftar även till att redogöra för revisorns ansvar gentemot penningtvättslagen samt framhålla vad begreppet kundkännedom innebär för revisorn i förhållande till lagen. Metod: För att uppnå studiens syfte har denna undersökning använt sig av den kvalitativa metoden. Intervjuformen som tillämpas är semi-strukturerad och studiens urval är ett icke-sannolikhetsurval. Undersökningens oberoende variabler är penningtvättslagen, revisorns ansvar och kundkännedom. Resultat: Studien visar att penningtvättslagen inte i någon större uträckning påverkat revisorns förhållningssätt. Gällande revisorns ansvar i förhållande till lagen anses lagen tämligen verkningslös ur ett brottsbekämpande perspektiv men kan ha positiv verkan ur ett brottsförebyggande syfte. Slutligen visar studien att ett effektivt sätt att motverka penningtvätt är att ha en god relation till klienten. / Background: Money laundering has increased particularly in recent years and received much attention. New laws and regulations with the aim of preventing and combating money laundering have been introduced. To prevent and fight money laundering organizations have been created on international levels. On national levels different official regulators have received assignments to participate against money laundering. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the auditors' approach to the law of money laundering. The study will also explain the auditor's liability to the anti money laundering act and emphasize what the concept of customer due diligence means for the auditor in relation to the law. Method: In order to achieve the purpose of the study this survey uses the qualitative method. The interview shape applied is semi-structured with a non-probability selection. The independent variables of the study are the laundering act, the auditors' responsibility and costumer due diligence. Conclusion: The study shows that the money laundering act not has affected the auditors' approach to any greater extent. Regarding the auditors' responsibility the law is considerable ineffective from a law enforcement perspective but can deliver positive results from a law enforcement purposes. Finally, the study shows that an effective way to prevent money laundering is to have a good relationship with the client.

Det är mycket viktigt att en revisor är oberoende, detta för att ge en opartisk och rättvis bild av finansiella rapporter. Den kommunala revisionen har de förtroendevalda revisorerna som ska granska att verksamheten sköts på ett tillförlitligt sätt enligt god revisionssed. Dock har proceduren för utnämnandet av de förtroendevalda revisorerna kritiserats i media för att vara partiskt och jävigt. Tidigare forskning lyfter fram olika hot som kan påverka en yrkesrevisors oberoende och opartiskhet i sitt arbete. Vissa av dessa hot väljs ut och undersöks. Har de utvalda hoten även en påverkan på de förtroendevalda revisorerna i Sveriges kommuner? Hot mot oberoende undersöks i form av tre undersökningsfrågor: rådgivning, kvalitetskontroller samt längden på uppdraget. Det har utformats en modell där undersökningsfrågorna ingår, giltigheten på denna testas. Insamlandet av datamaterialet har erhållits genom en sluten enkätstudie där 660 stycken kommunfullmäktige och förtroendevalda revisorer, runt om i landet, har svarat. Svaren har bearbetats och analyserats med hjälp av SPSS och Minitab. Resultatet visade att två av de tre undersökningsfrågorna hade en inverkan på oberoendet hos de förtroendevalda revisorerna. Studiens slutsats påvisade att respondenternas inställning till oberoendet främst kan förklaras av rådgivning och uppdragstidens längd, men även av politik som blev en ny undersökningsdel, modellen blev därför korrigerad. / It is very important that an auditor is independent, in order to give an impartial and fair view of the financial statements. The municipal audit has auditors who are trusted to review the organization. This is managed in a reliable manner according to generally accepted auditing standards. However, the procedure for the nomination of the trusted auditors is criticized in the media for being biased. Previous research highlights the different threats that may affect the auditor's independence and objectivity in their work. Some of these threats are chosen and examined. Do these threats also have an influence on the trusted auditors in Swedish municipalities? Threats against independence are examined in terms of three study factors: counseling, quality controls and auditor tenure. A model has been designed in which survey questions are included. It´s validity is later tested. The collection of the data is obtained through a closed survey in which 660 city council and trusted auditors have responded. The responses were processed and analyzed with the help of SPSS and Minitab. The results demonstrated that two of the three study factors had an impact on the independence of the local municipal audit. The study's conclusion clarifies that respondents' attitude towards independence is mainly reflected over counseling and auditor tenure but also of politics, that in the end became a new study factor, and therefore changed the models appearance.

This thesis provides evidence enabling an analysis of systemic director-auditor links, their nature, their determinants, their association with audit quality as an important component of corporate governance, and investor confidence in companies displaying these links. / The motivation for examining interpersonal associations between directors and auditors comes from several sources. First is the observation that auditing is a knowledge-based service the quality of which is difficult to evaluate even after the product has been experienced, adding to the complexity of the purchasing decision (Murray 1991). The use of personal contacts to scan the business environment, disseminate information and reduce uncertainty is likely to assist that evaluation and so aid in auditor selection. One manifestation of these personal contacts is directors who hold directorships on more than one board, creating networks of ties between companies known as interlocking directorates. It tends to be non-executive or external directors who create these ties because they have more time to devote to multiple directorships. Interlocking directorates are a long-standing phenomenon that has been examined in the economics, organisational behaviour and sociology literatures and are argued to engender trust, and mediate transactions. Some countries restrict such directorate ties between industry competitors because of their potential to encourage collusion and competitive disadvantage but Australia has no such restrictions. / In order to promote practice growth and firm survival, public accounting firms are known to tap into these networks, which often include former employees, encouraging personal contacts with, amongst others, directors of clients and potential clients. In this way, it is argued, companies interlocked through common directors tend to be audited by a common audit firm with the links extending to even audit partners. Extensive analysis of these interlocking directorates supports these arguments and finds that the association between interlocking directorates and director-auditor links becomes stronger as intra-industry and within confined geographical region data partitioning occurs and varies across audit firms. This variation across firms is subsequently used to model with some success auditor choice - even within the Big 6. / Systematic ties between directors and audit firms and/or audit partners potentially threaten at least the appearance of auditor independence, if not the fact. On the other hand, following the DeAngelo (1981)auditor size argument, the potential loss of a ‘family’ of clients associated with a single director if audit quality is degraded may actually enhance audit quality. This thesis argues that directors value personal contact in auditor-client relationships but are aware of the potentially damaging connotations arising from such interpersonal associations and the potential for investor disquiet about them. Implicit in this argument is an assumption that investors are both interested and active in matters of corporate governance, including the audit as a component of corporate governance. As such, the formation of director-auditor links is argued to be contingent on the balance of power between directors and shareholders and the strength of other aspects of corporate governance beside the audit function. Empirical results support this hypothesis only for interlocking created between two or more directors of companies in the same industry. / Evidence of director-auditor link association with audit quality is then sought by analysing qualifications and discretionary accruals in the presence of these links. Although alternative explanations are possible, some evidence is found of reduced audit quality. However, using the frequency with which an investor chooses to invest across companies audited by the same auditor as a measure of investor confidence in that auditor, results show that audit quality attributes are valued by investors and that director-auditor links are not associated negatively with investor confidence. Additional tests that examine the association between director-auditor links and various measures of organisational performance find little evidence of negative connotations. Public policy implications flow from the findings and these are discussed together with limitations and ideas for future research.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2003. Graduate Programme in Administration. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (180-193). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ99259

The present study examines and finds that internal auditors, particularly Chief Audit Executives, recognize financial accounting expertise as a significant base of audit committee (AC) power in the financial reporting process. However, such an AC expertise (i.e., financial accounting expertise) does not "counterbalance" internal auditors' perceived dependency on management or influence their decisions to monitor financial reporting quality. Instead, the cost-benefit analysis affects their decisions: (1) benefits of staying resolute to monitor financial reporting quality (i.e., "psychological empowerment"), and (2) costs of potential adverse reactions of management who exerts power over the internal audit. In addition, this study examines and finds that the financial reporting location (recognition vs. disclosure) has significant impacts on both internal audit reporting decisions and decisions to correct misstatements. Specifically, internal auditors' tolerances for disclosed misstatements reveal that they also feed the "vicious circle" of reliability expectations as external auditors do in a prior study (Libby, Nelson and Hunton, 2006).

Although gazillion of studies have been conducted regarding what influences auditors’ judgment, few studies examined the impact of conformity pressure on auditors’ judgment. Despite the few attempts to discover this area, different results rendered from these studies.The purpose of this study is to explain how the conformity pressures affect auditors’ judgement. The effect of other factors was taken into consideration such as professional commitment, Locus of control and the characteristics of Swedish culture. The method was quantitative using data collected by surveys sent to auditors working in big-four and non-big-four audit firms.The findings show that conformity pressure does not affect the judgment of the Swedish auditors.The limitations of the study are the number of responses received through the survey and the difficulty of accurately target the Swedish auditors.

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo estudar a atuação dos auditores independentes no contexto de uma operação de incorporação entre companhias abertas. Para tanto, abordaram-se os aspectos jurídicos e contábeis relevantes das operações de incorporação e, em seguida, procurou-se definir os deveres gerais e específicos aplicáveis aos auditores independentes e a responsabilidade civil em face das principais atividades desenvolvidas por tais agentes em operações dessa natureza, quais sejam, as atividades de auditoria das demonstrações financeiras e de avaliação da companhia incorporada. / The present work aims to study the performance of the independent auditors in the context of a merger of a publicly held company into another. For such purposes, we addressed the relevant legal and accounting aspects of the merger transactions and then sought to define the general and specific duties applicable to independent auditors and the liability in view of the main activities undertaken by them in transactions of this nature, which are the activities of auditing of financial statements and the valuation of the merged company.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2016-06-29T14:04:23Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) CFCH_Mest_CiencPol_Dissert_ArranjInstitTCsBRePT_VersaoFinal_Extensao_PDF.pdf: 1092529 bytes, checksum: 9ad819610447a70cf0d30ec7d7a7aaf2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-29T14:04:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) CFCH_Mest_CiencPol_Dissert_ArranjInstitTCsBRePT_VersaoFinal_Extensao_PDF.pdf: 1092529 bytes, checksum: 9ad819610447a70cf0d30ec7d7a7aaf2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-07-11 / CAPEs / O presente trabalho proporcionará duas contribuições fundamentais: conhecimento empírico sobre os arranjos institucionais dos Tribunais de Contas da União e de Portugal; e o fato de se constituir em estudo comparativo, área pouco explorada academicamente. Em outras palavras, propõe-se efetuar uma pesquisa descritivo-comparativa entre os arranjos institucionais destes órgãos de controle externo. Para tanto, a partir da literatura sobre neo-institucionalismo – adotando-se a visão do institucionalismo histórico, accountability horizontal, estudos comparados e dos próprios tribunais de contas, derivaram-se sete objetivos de pesquisa referentes ao controle horizontal exercido pelo Tribunal de Contas da União, pós Constituição de 1988, e pelo Tribunal de Contas de Portugal, pós Revolução de 1974, quais sejam: a) identificar quais são os arranjos institucionais dos Tribunais de Contas da União e de Portugal; b) avaliar quais as semelhanças e diferenças presentes em cada instituição analisada; c) avaliar se o arranjo institucional – regras, procedimentos, atores decisórios – de cada instituição pesquisada lhes permite exercer de maneira independente suas funções constitucionais; d) averiguar se estas instituições possuem mecanismos coercitivos capazes de fazer valer suas decisões; e) verificar se seus membros são revestidos das garantias necessárias à atuação também independente; f) analisar se sua estrutura burocrática é aparelhada com quadros técnicos adequados a exercerem as complexas tarefas relacionadas ao controle administrativo-financeiro; g) comparar os dados obtidos a fim de compreender como estas instituições em interação com o contexto político criam condições favoráveis (ou desfavoráveis) à accountability, afetando a capacidade dos representados de controlarem seus representantes. Num primeiro momento, a pesquisa se destina a conhecer e descrever os arranjos institucionais das instituições de controle a partir de questões básicas relativas à estruturação e ao funcionamento de cada um dos países estudados. A par destas informações, adentra-se, na sequencia, à fase analítica do trabalho, em que os dados obtidos são comparados. Por fim, as conclusões apontam as condições favoráveis para o exercício da accountability, bem como reforçam a necessidade de novos estudos para aprofundamento das discussões sobre o tema proposto. / This work will provide two fundamental contributions: empirical knowledge about the institutional arrangements of the Courts of Audit and Portugal, and the fact constitute comparative study, little explored area academically. In other words, it is proposed to make a descriptive-comparative institutional arrangements of these external control bodies. Therefore, from the literature on neo-institutionalism - adopting the vision of historical institutionalism, horizontal accountability, and comparative studies of their own courts of accounts, were derived seven research objectives for the horizontal control exercised by the Court of Union, after the 1988 Constitution, and the Court of Portugal, after the 1974 Revolution, which are: a) to identify what are the institutional arrangements of the Courts of Audit and Portugal b) assess what the similarities and differences present in each institution analyzed c) assess whether the institutional arrangement - rules, procedures, decision-making actors - each research institution allows them to exercise their functions independently constitutional d) determine whether these institutions have coercive mechanisms able to enforce its decisions; e) verify that its members are coated with the guarantees necessary for the independent performance also f) whether its bureaucratic structure is rigged with adequate technical staff to carry out the complex tasks related to the administrative and financial control; g) compare the data obtained in order to understand how these institutions interact with the political context are favorable (or unfavorable) to accountability, affecting the ability of the represented control their representatives. Initially, the research is designed to discover and describe the institutional arrangements of the institutions of control from the basic issues relating to the structuring and operation of each of the countries studied. Alongside this information, enters up, in sequence, the analytical phase of the work, in which the data obtained are compared. Finally, the findings indicate favorable conditions for the exercise of accountability, and reinforce the need for further studies to further the discussion on the proposed topic.

The aim of this thesis is clarification of the importace of financial statement audit, characterization of the auditor's procedure and presentation of a possible fulfillment of these theoretical outputs based on the financial statement audit of a real company.

The aim of this thesis is to characterize the various procedures that the auditor performs during his work and describe the process of the financial statement and annual report audit of the particular company.