The system of regulatory documents in the field of professional audit ethics: current state and areas for improvement

Abstract

Subject. Auditors’ compliance with professional ethics is fundamental for the reputation of the profession as a whole. Ensuring their reputation is critical to the audit institution, because without it, auditing can be quickly replaced by competing forms, such as public assurance and artificial intelligence verification procedures. In this situation, it is more appropriate to prevent risks associated with the loss of auditors’ reputations than to eliminate their consequences, which may be catastrophic for the audit market as a whole. To achieve this, the norms of professional audit ethics should be unified, established by an authoritative party, understandable for both auditors and the general public, and their violation should be suppressed and strictly punished. In this regard, it is important to ensure an up-to-date, consistent, and centralised system of documents regulating these norms. The study is devoted to the modern organisational issues facing this system in the Russian Federation.
Objectives. The aim of the study was to reveal the key current problems, from the authors’ point of view, in the organisation of the system of documents establishing the norms of professional ethics of auditors in the Russian Federation, which constitute threats to the Russian audit market, and to propose potential solutions.
Methodology. The research results were obtained using analysis, synthesis, analogy, logical approach, classification, etc. The above methods and approaches were applied to the mandatory requirements for auditors contained in regulatory legal acts and other regulatory documents, the system of state regulation and professional self-regulation of auditing activities in the Russian Federation, and statistical materials of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation characterising the Russian audit market. We also applied them to the established legal and auditing practices and current developments presented in specialised scientific literature.
Results. We identified the issues related to the responsibility for updating the Code of Professional Ethics for Auditors and the Rules of Independence of Auditors and Audit Organisations; the prevalence of decisions of the Bank of Russia in the field of professional audit ethics in the financial market over these documents. We proposed a structure for the process of updating the Code of Professional Ethics for Auditors and the Rules of Independence of Auditors and Audit Organisations preserving the originally envisaged hierarchy of parties involved in the regulation of auditing activities.
Conclusions. We came to the conclusion that there is no body responsible for updating the main documents containing mandatory requirements for auditors in terms of compliance with professional ethics; decisions of the Bank of Russia in the field of professional audit ethics in the financial sector take precedence over the relevant mandatory requirements at the federal level. We argued and proposed solutions to these problems for further professional and scientific discussion.