Auditing expectation gaps: are shareholders asking for too much on quality?

This is a theoretical discourse of the misconception and discrepancy between auditors’ responsibilities on the one hand and shareholders, society and stakeholder’s perception of their responsibilities on the other. The study is aimed at assessing the duties expected to be performed by the auditors and the perception of their duties by the stakeholders. This study aimed at assessing the duties expected to be performed by auditors and prospects of shareholders on the responsibilities, which are expected to be carried out. For this study, interview data from a KPMG study and other published data from literature were analyzed to determine auditors’ duties and the stakeholders’ perception of same. From the analysis carried out that shareholders expected an audit report to be a high quality reporting and to convey a clean bill of health. This is contrary to the statutory requirement of an audit. The study further shows shareholders expectation of what an audit report should be has a great impact on the audit exercise.