The modern auditor is, because of an increased complexity, dependent on the use of experts. Simultaneously different scandals have occurred where the auditor in fact have been using experts. Although the auditor is using an expert, the auditor alone is responsible for the statement that the expert makes. Research simultaneously indicates that the auditor?s use of experts is a difficult task.

The independent audit function plays an important role in our modern society as it strengthens the credibility of information given out by firms. A fundamental condition for the maintenance of confidence towards the audit function is the auditor?s independence. This phenomenon has been acknowledged threw several well-known audit scandals during the last decade, including the classical Enronscandal. In the repercussions of these huge auditing scandals, governments all over the world were now founding more restrictive rules and laws about audit independence.

Properties are bought and sold daily, which means that it is of great importance with rules that regulate the acquisition. The rules on who should be held liable for a property brought to a head when the acquisition relates to a property that is loaded with contaminated soil. The purpose with this thesis is to investigate who could be held liable for contaminated land and also whether an exclusion clause can affect the separation of responsibilities. Two different liabilities can occur depending on which law that should be applicable, MB or JB.MB's rules apply to anyone who may be subject to decontamination responsibilities, which is regulated in Chapter 10. MB.

This dissertation discusses the preparations companies do when their auditor is about to visit them. We wanted to investigate if companies do some form of preparations with the intense of trying to influence the auditor in an, for the company, advantageous way. The purpose was to be fulfilled through the deductive process of theorization and from the gathering of empirical and the analysis of this data. We decided that a multiple case study would be the best approach for us, as we wanted to undertake a greater number of interviews than is normally done in a case study. The result from our study showed that auditors think that information from a company is more reliable, if its documentation is neatly kept, or if the relationship between the auditor and the company is good.

The research of organizational structure and control in the audit profession suggest that there is a contradiction in that auditors should both nurture collegialities while they at the same time have their own responsibility for their individual development and career. This creates a competitive situation among colleagues who in return are expected to maintain a good social relationship and team spirit with each individual. Subsequently, being part of the collegiality and being highly individualistic, gives rise to a theoretical dilemma where these opposing forces are supposed to coincide with each other.The purpose of this paper is to create a bigger understanding of how auditors at major accounting firms can handle the conflict that arises. In order to explore this dilemma, we conducted a qualitative study based on an abductive approach. We have made seven semi-structured interviews from a localistic view.

The change in course recently taken by the Swedish Armed Forces results in an increased use of equipment, and thereby increased requirements of preventive maintenance. This paper aims to examine the current responsibilities for preventive maintenance in an army unit. The intended effect of this examination is to disclose possible flaws, and to help make routines for preventive maintenance more effective.The questions asked in this paper are;Who, in an army unit, is responsible for the routine maintenance?When is this responsibility valid?What demands does the technical service have on responsibilities for the routine maintenance?How are these demands met?How ought to be responsible for the routine maintenance?To answer these questions the author has chosen to use a descriptive method to show the current facts. A theorizing method is chosen to, from described facts, clarify the demands of the technical service on routine maintenance.

The recent accounting scandals in large companies in both USA and Europe, such as Enron and Scandia, have led to a huge debate about the quality of financial reports approved by auditors who, at the same time, offer consultancy service to their audit clients. Many researchers and experts argued that there is a role conflict when an auditor offers consultancy service to audit clients. They argue that the main duty of an auditor is to verify the truthfulness of the company's financial statements. Giving consultancy service to the audit clients will impair the auditor's role to examine the company's books independently because of the economic bond between auditors and audit clients.As a result of the Enron scandal, the legislators in the USA have made restrictions to how auditors provide non-audit service to audit clients. However, the legislators in Sweden, unlike the US, did not choose to introduce such restrictions.

The purpose of this research is to examine the implications of the provisions in the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance (the Code) concerning auditor attestation of the internal control report. We will focus on how the auditors? augmented responsibilities will affect the efficiency in the audit process.Our research indicates that the main benefit from reviewing the internal control report is achieving more reliable internal controls, which results in greater prevention of misstatements in the financial statements. This will affect the efficiency in the audit process since the auditor can place more reliance on internal controls when performing audit procedures. This implies that the benefits of preventing misstatements could outweigh the efforts and resources spent on reviewing the internal control report..

The expectation gap is the definition of the differences between what the interests expects from the auditor and what the auditor delivers. A number of studies have been done regarding the expectation gap and generally they point at the existence of an expectation gap.In our paper we want to discover and see how strategies are used in the process to reduce the expectation gap from three levels. The levels we treat are auditors, audit bureaus and the profession. We have chosen to examine the strategies used by the three levels to reduce the expectation gap to following interest groups, owners, management/board of directors, and creditors.The purpose with our paper is to create understanding about how auditors, audit bureaus and the profession use strategies in the process to reduce the expectation gap.With existing theories as ground we have construed and developed our own theory about which thinkable strategies the three levels can use.We have interviewed auditors, representatives from bureaus and a spokesman for the profession. In the examination we have used telephone interviews with questions based on our operationalization.

The number of women in Swedish firms of accountant is not lower then the number of men, but when we compared the number of chartered auditors, the number of women are low compared to men. This is connected to the public debate that is mainly emphasising that there are no differences between men and women and therefore the sexes should be treated equal. The method used is a qualitative study and the primary data was collected through interviews. The respondents consist of members, women as well as men, from eighteen auditors in Malmö and Kristianstad. The result shows that both male and female characters are needed in the work on the firm of accountants.

AbstractThe control of quality standard ISO 9001 has made the internal audit to be experienced as police authority and paragraph control. Because of that, motivation for internal auditors is low. To counteract the experience, there is a possibility to integrate internal audit with improvements in company?s processes. Theory has shown that a qualified and competent auditor can provide information that can help the organization's managements to make the right decisions that will improve product quality and result in new customer contracts.An opportunity to observe an internal and external audit at one of the case companies gave rise to this study.

AbstractThe control of quality standard ISO 9001 has made the internal audit to be experienced as police authority and paragraph control. Because of that, motivation for internal auditors is low. To counteract the experience, there is a possibility to integrate internal audit with improvements in company?s processes. Theory has shown that a qualified and competent auditor can provide information that can help the organization's managements to make the right decisions that will improve product quality and result in new customer contracts.An opportunity to observe an internal and external audit at one of the case companies gave rise to this study.

In the recent years auditing scandals all around the world, deficient internal control has attracted a lot of attention. This has contributed to further requirements on insight and internal control. Those scandals have seriously damaged the auditor?s profession and contributed to a reduced trust among the public. Therefore an extensive work to recover and stringed the trust was started all around the world.

Several industrial scandals, especially those about Enron and WorldCom, have lead to an intense debate about the independent audit and the independent auditor. A substantial part of the auditor?s income originates from counselling, and therefore the role of the auditor may be seen as double, and the auditor?s objectivity may be questioned. In the year of 2002, a new Auditors Act was legislated in Sweden. In the 21 § of the act, a model based on principles was introduced, to test the auditor independence in every single case.

The connection between accounting and taxation goes back to the 1920s laws of the named areas. A proposal has now been brought forward, the so-called SamRoB-investigation, which means that the connection between accounting and taxations should be decoupled.The authors? aim with the study is to investigate what a possible decoupling between accounting and taxation, i.e. the formal connection and the untaxed revenues, implicates for the auditor´s work.A research has been done by interviewing two authorized auditors and one authorized consultant of accounting to get a view in how the auditor?s works could be affected.