Bachelor-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2008.

Master-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2005.

Bachelor-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2006.

There has been a dearth of research on ‘auditors and environmental matters’ since Collison (1996) and Collison and Gray (1997) completed their study on the views of UK auditors about whether auditing is changing, or should be changing, in relation to environmental concerns. It is now more than ten years since the publication of that study. Growing international concern for environmental matters has since led to the issue of International Auditing Practice Statement (IAPS) -1010: The consideration of environmental matters in the audit of financial report in 1998 and, in New Zealand, Audit Guidance Statement (AGS) -1010: The consideration of environmental matters in the audit of a financial statement in 2001. Yet, to date, there has been no examination of the impact of IAPS-1010 or AGS-1010 on either current audit practice, or the issues raised by Collison (1996) and Collison and Gray (1997). This doctoral thesis has attempted to address the environmental impact gap in the auditing research literature. In particular, it has investigated the consideration of environmental matters in the audit of financial reports in the light of AGS-1010, with a view to understanding better the following issues: (1) how auditors generally perceive the consideration of environmental matters in the audit of financial reports; (2) the common approaches and practices auditors undertake when auditing environmental matters; (3) the challenges (if any) that auditors face in the audit of environmental matters (4) the impact (if any) of AGS 1010 on current audit practice and, finally, (5) how current practices in the audit of environmental matters may be improved and further developed to meet better the espoused aims of AGS-1010. Qualitative interviews with twenty-seven senior financial audit practitioners and others in New Zealand provided the basis for the findings. The interviews were taped, transcribed and managed with the use of computerised qualitative analysis software (NViVo7). Key findings from the research interviews were as follows: (1) the introduction of AGS-1010 had little impact on current audit practice in New Zealand; (2) environmental matters were treated no differently from any other audit issues, and auditors tended to apply common, familiar audit approaches in dealing with environmental matters; (3) auditors found the effective auditing of environmental matters challenging owing to their inability to identify such matters, and their lack of relevant expert knowledge. The most significant finding from this study is that, in general, common audit practices were riddled with issues of concern. These issues point to a broader and more significant problem. It would seem that current audit practices fail to consider many potential audit issues (including environmental matters) adequately in the audit of financial reports. For auditors to be more effective in their audit practice and in protecting the public interest, not only does audit methodology need a major review, but auditors themselves need to change their attitudes and mindsets in their approach to auditing.

The aim of this thesis is to see if the elected auditors in the Swedish municipalities focus more on financial or on performance auditing in the audit report. This is a very important question today in the public sector because of the change in the elected auditor’s duties and responsibility. The public organizations management and accounting today are influenced by the private sector; therefore there must be a change in the elected auditor’s role in the public organization. The investigation was done by going through the audit reports of the municipalities of Sweden. The factors looked at were connected to both financial auditing and performance auditing and public management and accounting. Besides looking for factors, the number of words connected to each factor was counted. Since we only received audit reports from 232 out of 290 municipalities, our result is a little skewed representing the larger municipalities.The results from this study is that there is significantly more information concerning financial auditing rather than performance auditing in the audit report in the municipalities of Sweden. Also the political majority has no effect on the content of the audit report, nor do the political parties affect the amount of information concerning financial or performance auditing. The study also shows that the use of professional auditors in the municipalities can affect the content of the audit reports, both when it comes to financial and performance auditing.

There has been a dearth of research on ‘auditors and environmental matters’ since Collison (1996) and Collison and Gray (1997) completed their study on the views of UK auditors about whether auditing is changing, or should be changing, in relation to environmental concerns. It is now more than ten years since the publication of that study. Growing international concern for environmental matters has since led to the issue of International Auditing Practice Statement (IAPS) -1010: The consideration of environmental matters in the audit of financial report in 1998 and, in New Zealand, Audit Guidance Statement (AGS) -1010: The consideration of environmental matters in the audit of a financial statement in 2001. Yet, to date, there has been no examination of the impact of IAPS-1010 or AGS-1010 on either current audit practice, or the issues raised by Collison (1996) and Collison and Gray (1997). This doctoral thesis has attempted to address the environmental impact gap in the auditing research literature. In particular, it has investigated the consideration of environmental matters in the audit of financial reports in the light of AGS-1010, with a view to understanding better the following issues: (1) how auditors generally perceive the consideration of environmental matters in the audit of financial reports; (2) the common approaches and practices auditors undertake when auditing environmental matters; (3) the challenges (if any) that auditors face in the audit of environmental matters (4) the impact (if any) of AGS 1010 on current audit practice and, finally, (5) how current practices in the audit of environmental matters may be improved and further developed to meet better the espoused aims of AGS-1010. Qualitative interviews with twenty-seven senior financial audit practitioners and others in New Zealand provided the basis for the findings. The interviews were taped, transcribed and managed with the use of computerised qualitative analysis software (NViVo7). Key findings from the research interviews were as follows: (1) the introduction of AGS-1010 had little impact on current audit practice in New Zealand; (2) environmental matters were treated no differently from any other audit issues, and auditors tended to apply common, familiar audit approaches in dealing with environmental matters; (3) auditors found the effective auditing of environmental matters challenging owing to their inability to identify such matters, and their lack of relevant expert knowledge. The most significant finding from this study is that, in general, common audit practices were riddled with issues of concern. These issues point to a broader and more significant problem. It would seem that current audit practices fail to consider many potential audit issues (including environmental matters) adequately in the audit of financial reports. For auditors to be more effective in their audit practice and in protecting the public interest, not only does audit methodology need a major review, but auditors themselves need to change their attitudes and mindsets in their approach to auditing.

Die gesetzlich verpflichtende Jahresabschlussprüfung ist in den vergangenen Jahren durch wesentliche Veränderungen gekennzeichnet. Einerseits verlangen gesetzliche Vorgaben als Reaktion auf Bilanzskandale und Finanzkrisen eine zeitnahe Berichterstattung über die rechnungslegungsrelevanten Aktivitäten geprüfter Unternehmen. Andererseits werden Rechnungslegungsprozesse mittlerweile nahezu vollständig mithilfe betrieblicher Informationssysteme, z. B. Enterprise-Resource-Planning-Systeme (ERP-Systeme) und Buchhaltungssysteme, durchgeführt. Dadurch ergeben sich sowohl der Bedarf als auch die grundsätzliche Umsetzbarkeit digitaler, kontinuierlicher Prüfungsansätze. Trotz umfangreicher Vorarbeiten im Bereich der digitalen Prüfung in den letzten 30 Jahren haben sich jedoch bislang keine Ansätze zur flächendeckenden Ausbreitung kontinuierlicher Prüfungsansätze etabliert. Grund dafür sind vor allem Barrieren auf organisatorischer und technischer Ebene. Dies stellt insbesondere kleine und mittelständische Prüfungsgesellschaften vor große Herausforderungen, da diese in der Regel nicht über personelle und fachliche Kapazitäten für die Umsetzung komplexer Prüfungssysteme verfügen. Die gestaltungsorientierte Wirtschaftsinformatik kann mit der Entwicklung von IT-Artefakten einen Beitrag zur digitalen Transformation der Abschlussprüfung leisten. In dieser Dissertation wird der beschriebene Bedarf aufgegriffen und, auf Basis eines dreistufigen Forschungsvorgehens, ein Lösungsansatz für die geschilderte Problemstellung entwickelt: Auf der ersten Stufe wird anhand einer empirischen Grundmethodik der Prüfungsprozess in der Praxis analysiert (Ist-Analyse). Auf der zweiten Stufe werden bestehende Konzepte und Erfolgsfaktoren für die Umsetzung der kontinuierlichen Prüfung untersucht (Soll-Konzeption). Das in der dritten Stufe beschriebene Lösungskonzept „Audit-as-a-Service“ sieht die Integration eines spezialisierten Informationsdienstleisters vor, der als Mediator zwischen Prüfungsgesellschaften und geprüften Unternehmen fungiert und die kontinuierliche Prüfung zu einem Geschäftsmodellansatz erweitert.

Financial management remains a challenge in many schools because most managers lack proper training. Schools are still unclear on the features and functions of a school’s budget. The implementation and control of the budget and evaluation remain problematic. According to Mestry (2004: 26), there are many Principals and School Governing Body (SGB) members who lack the necessary financial knowledge and skills and are placed under tremendous pressure because they are unable to work out practical solutions to the financial problems of the school. In many instances it has been reported that principals and SGBs have been subjected to forensic audit by the Department of Education due to the mismanagement of funds through misappropriation, fraud, pilfering of cash, theft and improper control of financial records. The South African Schools Act no. 84 (SASA) prescribes how the school should manage their funds. It also provides guidelines for the SGB and the principal on their roles and responsibilities in managing the finances of the school. SGB must perform all functions as stipulated in section 20 of the Schools Act (South Africa, 1996). The study has will find that the SGBs in township schools have a challenge in the management of funds in schools. This is due to the fact that parents in the SGBs of the selected township schools lack of knowledge and expertise making it difficult for them to contribute meaningfully in governance. The Department of Education trains SGBs on roles and responsibilities, but it seems as if training is not effective. The budget is drawn up efficiently and finance records are well managed in some township schools in some township schools. The researcher in some township schools recommends that the treasurer of the SGB should be someone with expertise in accounting or financial 5 skills. This will reduce the administrative duties that are performed by the principal on behalf of the parents in the SGBs. The Department of Education should strengthen the training given to the SGBs so that they can perform their duties efficiently and effectively. All stakeholders should be consulted when the budget is drawn. Schools should foster good working relations between the SMTs and the SGBs / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Education Management)

Financial management remains a challenge in many schools because most managers lack proper training. Schools are still unclear on the features and functions of a school’s budget. The implementation and control of the budget and evaluation remain problematic. According to Mestry (2004: 26), there are many Principals and School Governing Body (SGB) members who lack the necessary financial knowledge and skills and are placed under tremendous pressure because they are unable to work out practical solutions to the financial problems of the school. In many instances it has been reported that principals and SGBs have been subjected to forensic audit by the Department of Education due to the mismanagement of funds through misappropriation, fraud, pilfering of cash, theft and improper control of financial records. The South African Schools Act no. 84 (SASA) prescribes how the school should manage their funds. It also provides guidelines for the SGB and the principal on their roles and responsibilities in managing the finances of the school. SGB must perform all functions as stipulated in section 20 of the Schools Act (South Africa, 1996). The study has will find that the SGBs in township schools have a challenge in the management of funds in schools. This is due to the fact that parents in the SGBs of the selected township schools lack of knowledge and expertise making it difficult for them to contribute meaningfully in governance. The Department of Education trains SGBs on roles and responsibilities, but it seems as if training is not effective. The budget is drawn up efficiently and finance records are well managed in some township schools in some township schools. The researcher in some township schools recommends that the treasurer of the SGB should be someone with expertise in accounting or financial 5 skills. This will reduce the administrative duties that are performed by the principal on behalf of the parents in the SGBs. The Department of Education should strengthen the training given to the SGBs so that they can perform their duties efficiently and effectively. All stakeholders should be consulted when the budget is drawn. Schools should foster good working relations between the SMTs and the SGBs / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Education Management)