Fraud panel says auditors can do more
The chairman of the Fraud Advisory Panel has called on auditors to do more to battle serious corporate fraud in the UK.
Writing in Accountancy Age this week, George Staple said that while the industry had done a great deal to tighten things up over the last decade, ‘rules were not enough’.
He said training, continued professional development and the cultures and attitudes in audit firms were far more important factors.
Chiefly he said it was vital to be able to ‘assess people in auditing businesses, the pressures they face and the illegal responses they may employ’.
Hugh Matthew-Jones, a partner at PKF, said it was less obvious to know what accountants should do and said in many cases there was the involvement of senior management in carrying out fraud.