The future evolution of audit
The audit function is probably coterminous with human society. The presence of auditing has been inferred from records of a Mesopotamian civilisation going back as early as 3500 BC. These records, involving financial transactions, displayed a variety of markings that may be construed as a system of verification.
Internal controls and separation of duties probably arose at the same time. Ancient Rome employed the ‘hearing of accounts’, where one official would compare his records with those of another – an application of both separation of duties and verification. But it wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution in Europe that auditing with characteristics similar to current auditing – that is, beyond the hearing of accounts to include verification of accounting records and associated supporting documentation – came into being.
Yet despite this long history, the purpose of audit is now in question. While there were similar periodic bouts of questioning during the corporate collapses in the 1980s and 1990s, the worldwide financial crisis of the past two years has given the issue a new urgency.
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