Audit Responsibility as a Specific Type of Legal Responsibility

Abstract

Most of the theoretical and methodological problems of audit are related to the unresolved legal aspects, in particular, the specifics of audit responsibility. The issue of legal responsibility is well developed in the legal and economic literature, but there is no General understanding of the specifics of audit responsibility. The purpose of this article is to determine the grounds and problems of implementation of the legal responsibility of the auditor. Legal responsibility implies the existence of guilt, if we are talking about a concrete infringement. The article substantiates that the requirement of mandatory guilt as a result of the auditor's specific offense unreasonably narrows the range of application of audit responsibility. On the basis of the General theoretical (philosophical) method and specifically applied research methods, the author proposes to identify not only legal but also moral grounds for audit responsibility, which arise in connection with the abuse of law ("black audit"), which is considered by law as an act, socially harmful and illegal, but not always punishable. The author's conclusion is that the basis of audit responsibility, as a specific type of legal responsibility, is the fact that it should occur both for offenses and in their absence, subject to harm in connection with a non-specific offense, and in connection with the delay, late acceptance and inefficiency of audit recommendations, erroneous audit opinion, abuse of law. All these grounds together can cause huge damage to both the state and other economic entities and individuals.