Abstract:
Environmental issues have a significant impact on business and the auditing profession. Each year firms are prosecuted and fined for violating environmental laws. Corporations are faced with increasing pressures from diverse stakeholder groups, including governmental agencies, to address environmental concerns. The implications of environmental issues on business lead to the emergence of a number of arguments concerning the role of accountants and financial auditors in environmental issues. This study reviews the literature to contribute in such arguments. The critical question posed is should auditing profession develop its performance by widening its scope to encapsulate environmental issues? The study concludes that environmental issues have a number of implications on both the auditing profession and business. The auditing profession cannot continue to ignore these implications. It should accept this challenge and widen its scope to encapsulate environmental issues. The impact of environmental issues on the accounting and auditing profession can be noticed in a number of aspects such as corporate environmental reporting; environmental violations and illegal acts; accounting for contingencies; auditing accounting estimates; the going concern assumption; and materiality policy.
