Abstract:

This article provides a reflection of the paper as presented and discussed at the FAR conference of 9 and 10 May 2016 “Public Oversight of audit firms: the slippery slope of enforcing regulation” written by Robert Knechel, Carlin Dowling and Robyn Moroney (hereafter KDM, 2016). KDM describe the perceptions of auditors from the Big 4 audit firms and the regulator1 in Australia regarding the correlation between regulatory enforcement style and its perceived impact on audit quality. We believe the paper is relevant and timely, because it documents well the current divergence of perceptions between auditors and regulators on how to continue their pursuit for higher audit quality. We argue that the paper could be strengthened by offering the authors’ views on what is required from both parties to realign their expectations.

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