THE IMPACT OF GOING CONCERN ASSUMPTION ON THE AUDIT REPORT

Abstract

Financial statements issued by the entities have a great impact on the trust they build. Especially after the recent financial crises, and accounting and auditing scandals, the entity’s ability to continue as a going concern has become much more important for the investors. Also with regards to independent audit, the concept of going concern is related with the investor perspective more, compared to other perspectives. In this context, when independent auditors are examining the entity’s ability to continue as going concern, they emphasize on issues of continuity that may affect the decisions of interested parties, major ones being the investors. International Standard on Auditing 570 – Going Concern (ISA 570) was issued with the purpose to ensure that the interested parties obtain accurate and reliable information on the financial statements. With the standard of ISA 570, responsibilities have been imposed on independent auditors, which require that they evaluate the adverse events and conditions with respect to the entity’s ability to continue as going concern, and that they provide accurate information to the users of information. The latest amendments in the reporting standards aimed to expand the auditing reports, and following these, additional amendments were issued about the going concern concept, imposing additional responsibilities for both the management and the auditors. Consequently, the scope of the audit reports has been expanded. According to these new arrangements; i) the audit report will now include more explanations on the auditor’s and the management’s responsibilities on the entity’s ability to continue as going concern, ii) the audit report will now include a separate section in case there is a significant uncertainty on the continuity of the entity, iii) if there is not a significant uncertainty on the continuity of the entity, but there are indicators that may endanger the entity’s continuity, the audit report will now include explanations of these. Unless the management intends to liquidate the entity, intends to cease the business activities of the entity, or unless the management is obliged to act as such, the going concern assumption should prevail. In due course, the auditor shall seek to obtain the sufficient and appropriate audit evidence about the appropriateness of management’s use of the going concern assumption, and shall decide whether it is appropriate to make this assumption. The fundamental responsibility of the independent auditor is to detect the cases which may create significant uncertainties and serious doubts about the entity’s ability to continue as going concern (if any), and to report these in line with the standards. Within this scope, all activities carried out throughout the independent audit process shall be carried out considering the probability of the occurrence of cases which may risk the continuity of the entity. This paper examines the auditor’s evaluations in relation to the going concern assumption based on ISA 570, and the reflection of these evaluations to the auditor’s opinion.