Challenges Of The Auditing Profession In The Context Of Economic Crisis

The crisis that influences the contemporary worldwide economy is the result of the manner in which the financial-economic system is built and of the manner in which the patrimonial situation and the performances of the economic entities are evaluated and presented. As a result of the public interest for the auditing profession, the financial auditor develops his/ her activity by respecting some regulations particularly elaborated for this profession (the code of ethics and the audit standards) in order for his/ her opinion to have a solid background and, most important, to be trustworthy. While the accounting conventions (national and international) are based on two concepts that support the entire accounting structure, the going concern activity and the accrual accountancy, structure which is built with the help of cash flow, the international audit standards (in accordance with which the audit activity is being developed) are built around two main concepts: professional judgement and professional skepticism. In the economic crisis context, the auditor’s professional judgement receives a fundamental importance in order to provide to the users of audited accounting information an acceptable level of trust. Also, the appreciation of the going concern activity is an element which receives different valences in the new context in comparison with previous periods of time. Therefore, in this paper, we propose to analyze the role of the professional judgement and professional skepticism in the development of audit activity within the current economic context. By its nature, the professional judgement is a concept that reflects the idea of subjectivity, but the opinion that the auditor expresses by using the professional judgement must be objective. Thus, an objective anchor must be found in order to transform the subjectivity of professional judgement into an objective audit opinion.