Motives for subcontracting external auditors` work to others

Abstract

In this paper, we argue that it could be beneficial for routine external audit work to be subcontracted to other auditors and this could be accomplished without affecting the quality of the external audit. The rationale for such activities could range from economic constraints, such as limited staff to complete the audit engagement to more general, such as lack of specific knowledge for certain accounting/audit areas. As key premise to this argument, we note that before such subcontracting could occur, the initial external auditors must be satisfied with subcontracted external audit activities and they have to ensure they meet the established standards of audit quality in order to render an audit opinion. This would ensure that the other auditors are independent of the client and qualified enough to handle the assigned tasks. These procedures are similar to the ones undertaken by external auditors to evaluate whether they could use the work of the internal auditors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]