As an important means for certified public accountants to obtain external audit evidence, the audit evidence obtained through confirmation has high reliability. For the development of the industry, relevant departments have continuously improved the system construction and promoted technological innovation. They not only introduced a series of policies, such as the "Notice on Further Standardizing Bank Confirmation and Reply Work" and the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Digitalization of Confirmation Work in Accounting Firms", but also jointly built a third-party electronic confirmation platform to achieve full digitalization of confirmation receipt, processing and storage. However, in practical operation, the execution effect of the confirmation procedure has a significant gap from the expectation. From 2013 to 2024, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued a total of 61 administrative penalty decisions against accounting firms, among which 44 pointed out that the firms had improper confirmation behaviors in their audit practices, accounting for as high as 72%. In cases such as Victory Precision and Blue Mountain Technology, improper confirmation was the main cause of audit failure. This data fully indicates that the problem of improper confirmation is widespread in audit practices and seriously affects the quality of audits.
This thesis selects the audit failure cases of Lixin CPA Firm for Longli Bio, Zhongxingcai Guanghua CPA Firm for Lushan Technology, and Tianheng CPA Firm for Shengli Precision as research objects. Based on the principal-agent theory, information asymmetry theory, and modern risk-oriented theory, and using the methods of literature research, case study, and statistical analysis, it sorts out the problems of improper confirmation by the case firms. Then, it screens and organizes data from the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Finance Bureau, and the Juchao Information Network. The causes are mainly analyzed from the perspectives of the audit subject, the audited entity, the confirmation party, and the audit environment. The reasons of the audit subject mainly include: (1) insufficient professional competence and lack of due diligence; (2) lack of professional skepticism; (3) insufficient independence and lack of professional ethics; (4) inadequate quality control and random filling of working thesiss. The reasons of the audited entity mainly include: internal control deficiencies and intentional fraud leading to confirmation distortion. The main reasons of the confirmation party include: lack of initiative in response and lack of unified standards for responses. In addition, the reasons of the audit environment mainly include: limitations of traditional confirmation methods and intense industry competition pressure. Finally, it successively proposes countermeasures to prevent improper confirmation, including: improving the professional competence of certified public accountants to ensure strict implementation of the "Confirmation" standards throughout the confirmation process, embedding a professional skeptical attitude throughout the confirmation process, improving audit rotation and fee control to strengthen independence and professional ethics, implementing quality control systems, focusing on the internal control of the audited entity, conducting targeted confirmations based on the risk points of the audited entity, establishing a systematic active control and responsibility strengthening mechanism, establishing an effective communication mechanism with the confirmation party, and promoting the construction of a blockchain-based online confirmation platform by external regulatory agencies and strengthening guidance on the practice environment to establish a good industry ecosystem.
Through the research on multiple cases of improper confirmation, this thesis is conducive to enriching the research field of improper confirmation, promoting the standardization and scientific development of the confirmation process, and enhancing the effectiveness of confirmation supervision. At the same time, it is also hoped that it can contribute to the standardization of the manufacturing industry to a certain extent and promote the healthy development of the industry. It is also hoped that it can help accounting firms optimize the audit process, enhance the professional competence of auditors, thereby improving the quality of confirmation, enhancing market competitiveness, and achieving sustainable development.
谷歌
火狐
