“There are two fundamental problems with independent auditing. The first is that it isn’t independent at all…The second… is that it is an uncompetitive market, dominated by four large firms.” Jonathan Hayward
After Enron, Tyco, GlobalCrossing, Ahold and HealthSouth, we are all aware of the problem. And many of us are aware of how, in the US at least, Sarbanes-Oxley intends to impose some kind of solution – a solution that most people who know anything about accounting believe is fundamentally flawed.
Jonathan Hayward (who, as a former audit partner at one of the then Big Five practices, does indeed know a lot about accounting) proposes a radically different approach .