Ethics in Providing Non-Audit Services to Ensure Transparency in Financial Reporting

Abstract

The professional ethics requirements impose auditors to fulfill the accepted engagement with objectivity, independence and professionalism. Seldom, auditors provided consulting services for the audited firms in order to gain an additional income. But a number of cases proved the existence of a complicity in committing or abetting acts of financial fraud. The auditors’ complicity was supported by the interest in non-audit fees, received by continuing legal relationships. The present study aims to analyze the influence of non-audit fees on the transparency of Client Company's financial reporting, in compliance with professional ethics demands. The results support the idea the, for companies listed at the New York Stock Exchange, the non-audit fees can affect the auditors independence, with a negative impact on the mission quality and implicitly on the transparency of Client Company's financial reporting