> Auditors seem mainly to just double check the numbers they're handed. This serves a purpose, it provides some level of guarantee that companies that are actin

> Auditors seem mainly to just double check the numbers they're handed. This serves a purpose, it provides some level of guarantee that companies that are acting in good faith are generally reporting correct numbers. Auditors don't do what people seem to think they should do - investigate and uncover fraud. If a company wants to commit fraud, the auditors simply aren't resourced in a way that would allow them to uncover it because there's not really that much incentive to uncover the fraud, the fraudster is extremely motivated, and if you wanted that level of hostile investigative work it would be much more expensive for every company. While I agree audit is a hard job auditors should not just rubber stamp what the company gives them. They should ask probing questions like "where did this sale come from?", "how did you calculate this figure?" and "why are you doing this? It is unusual." A consequence of this is that they may pick up on suspicious signs within a set of accounts and choose not to sign them off, but I wouldn't say theeir job is to identify fraud per se. What is clear from cases such as wirecard is that EY have failed to ask these probing questions on several occasions, and subsequent audits (by other firms) have shown it is entirely possible to ask appropriate questions and uncover dodgy practices.