Impact Of Financial Crisis On Financial Audit Activity In Romania

Given the growing concerns in the current socio-economic context for obtaining more relevant and more „insuring” information on the quality of financial information provided by the financial statements of various companies, both practitioners and academics, but also regulators, are asking various questions on how external audits and audit reports are and should be looked at.Unfortunately, in recent years we face a continuous degradation of the audit image, and by default of that of financial auditors. This is due to scandals and bankruptcies of companies and financial institutions, where auditors have contributed more or less. All these led to intensified efforts of audit professional and regulatory bodies for analysing the causes of these phenomena in order to identify and impose a number of measures aimed to restore the lack of credibility occurring increasingly stronger in the results of auditors’ work. Auditors and audit companies should not overlook the social importance of financial audits in recent years – a position obtained after an effort of hundreds of years - and eventually extend their responsibilities and seek for new methods or procedures compatible with current needs in order to support their work. Therefore, audit value must be continually tested against requirements of users and society. Accounting profession must build a solid case in favour of the benefits brought by audits to business, economy and society. Audits must evolve and expand to add more value for users. Especially for listed companies and even more in times of crisis, audits must be more than an opinion on historical financial statements.