On May 1, 2014, at 11:07 AM, John Souter <j...@linx.net> wrote: > On 01/05/14 17:41, Owen DeLong wrote: >> The problem with this theory is that if auditors can be so easily put to the >> street, you run into the risk of auditors altering behavior to increase >> customer >> satisfaction in ways that prevent them from providing the controls that are >> the >> reason auditors exist in the first place. > > I disagree. And the power balance is generally tilted way in favour of > the auditors, as many people on this thread have already commented. In > my experience, most companies are afraid/inhibited to raise issues or > challenge their auditors in any way. Nobody is asking auditors to roll > over, but if their behaviour is unprofessional/illogical, then a short > sharp shock should do the trick.
I’m not saying that auditors shouldn’t be accountable or that people shouldn’t be able to do something about auditors that are being irrational/stupid. Believe me, I cringe every time I hear “our auditors require NAT as a security mechanism” since NAT is a minor hindrance to security at best. I realize you’re not asking auditors to roll over, but finding a balance point is tricky. >> If you don’t believe me, examine the history of Arthur Anderson and their >> relationship with a certain Houston-based company which failed spectacularly. > > Can't really comment, but it was financial auditing, and ISTR that many > things failed in that situation - not just financial auditing. Many things failed in that situation. MOST of them should have been caught and stopped by financial auditing. Yes, it was financial auditing, but I don’t really see the difference. When you turn “pleasing the customer” into a potential conflict with “accurate audit results”, you create a recipe for trouble. As much as I want auditors accountable for unprofessional/illogical conduct (which does not yield “accurate results” anyway), I consider it critical to avoid putting auditors in the “a happy customer is a good customer with a happy audit” mentality because that leads to very bad places. The right place is somewhere between these extremes, but defining that location is quite difficult. Owen
