The Rise of the Rogue Executive: How Good Companies Go Bad and How to Stop the Destruction

Chapter 6. Auditing the Public’s Auditors

Public auditing has to be fixable. Public auditing is the linchpin of our enterprise system. It is supposed to keep companies honest in how they do their accounting and reporting, safeguarding the public’s interest in terms of both investing and taxation. Public auditing is important to public corporations as well as governmental entities required to be publicly audited. Its role should make the financials more than transparent. Auditors should also be in a position to alert management, the board, and investors to unexpected consequences of decisions that have been implemented, sometimes hastily.

An auditor’s seal of approval assures the shareholder that the numbers are real and not an infomercial, not ...