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> The point of an auditor is to provide accountability I always thought that the point was to be able to say "see, someone signed here and said everything was

• michaelt 5y ago
  The theoretical purpose of auditors is to allow companies to prove things to the public, without proving them publicly. That might be a company proving to its shareholders that their accounts are in order, without publicly releasing every last deal and detail. If the accounts say Google's got a billion dollars in the bank, investors having someone check they have a bank account with a billion dollars in is basic common sense! The practical purpose of auditors is a lot less clear, because companies get to choose their own auditors, and nobody hires auditors with a reputation for being difficult...
• buran77 5y ago
  > "see, someone signed here and said everything was fine!" But that's fine. If you have a crack in your foundation you want to know about it, not to be forced to fix it or for the whole world to know about it. You can decide for yourself having the full knowledge of the situation what you need to do next and take responsibility for that decision. Or you can pretend you never knew and whatever happened is not your fault. This is the critical role of an auditor, to point out the reality so you have to be accountable for whatever comes next. And this is exactly why many companies pay for or hire junior/inexperienced auditors. So they can go through the motions without the accountability.