In 1983 Sweden passed a law stating that all limited liability companies are to be included into a mandatory auditing system. According to the EEC, courts fourth amendment, each country has the right to decide whether to exclude a mandatory auditing system for smaller companies. Audit reports in Sweden are considered to be very important for the bank crediting system. Should this be eliminated, it would be more difficult for banks to trust an audit. The significance of calculated audits is questioned in regards to the banks accrediting system.

Background: Media has for a long time been reporting about the audit industry, often focusing on so-called auditing scandals. Economic journalism has grown stronger, the corporations are given more and more power in society and the public interest is increasing. We intend to examine how mass media affects the expectations gap and how the auditing firms operate strengthening the society?s confidence in the industry after mass medial exploitation. We also want to investigate whether the relatively new phenomenon social media is affecting the auditing firms and industry?s external communication, as well as what consequences negative publicity may have for the individual auditor.Aim: The aim of the study is to create an understanding of the audit industry?s relation to the media as well as to describe and analyze how mass media?s coverage is affecting the audit industry, auditing firms as well as the individual auditor.

Today?s political debate on environmental issues and environmental thinking, alongside the Swedish presidency of the EU and Climate Conferences shows that the environment is an important topic. Environment is important, not only in politics, but also for companies and the demand of environmental strategies and environmental reports has increased. This leads to an increased pressure on firms to begin to report on environmental concerns and to create active systems for environmental thinking.The aim of the present study is to examine why firms in the transport sector, mainly lorry transports, reports environmental aspects and what drives these companies to create these reports.Based on stakeholder and institutional theory we aim to examine to which extent stakeholders affects the environmental accounting and reporting. We also aim to explain how the organization is influenced to incorporate external and societal environmental procedures.

The environmental work in Sweden has developed a lot over the past fifty years. Today, most companies have some kind of environmental work. Environmental activities are regulated by the Environmental Code, which applies in parallel with other laws. This report is an environmental review for Bräcke Diakoni. The report aims to find out how much environmental impact Bräcke Diakoni has.

Is accountability possible in global environmental governance? The purpose ofthis thesis is to examine if accountability is possible in global environmental governance. From an accountability perspective the thesis tries to illuminate global environmental governance. An investigation about the conceptaccountability is made and the thesis also illuminates the possible problems that exist in global environmental governance which exist of such a large amounts of different and often private actors. By investigating and examine the concept of accountability from different aspects and by using Global Compact as a example of global environmental governance the thesis try to answer if accountability actually exist in global environmental governance and in what way it is possible to demand accountability.

Audit is a service of society that takes place in the public interest. To guarantee the quality of auditing a quality control is done with predetermined time intervals. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and analyze the concept quality and the procedure of the quality control and further to tie concepts like trust and ethics to the audit profession. To make the picture complete the paper also provides an insight regarding what deficiencies in quality, in other words failures, means to the audit profession. By performing semi-structured interviews with seven qualified auditors, active on different auditing firms in Skåne, substantial information was collected.

The need for auditing originates from the agency problem that arises due to the separation of ownership and control in companies. The purpose of the audit is to increase credibility of the financial statements that management uses to communicate with owners and other stakeholders. In order for the audit to fulfill its purpose a certain level of quality needs to be obtained. The auditor can also be seen as a provider of a commercial service in which service quality is important. Audit quality can thus be separated into technical quality, which is defined as the probability that the auditor both discovers and reports a breach in the client?s accounting system, and service quality, which relates to the provision of services in general.

An environmental review has been carried out at FORIA AB, a transportation- and machine service company, to analyze the company?s environmental aspects from the transportation segment. This report describes the essential background and the methods of identifying and evaluate the environmental aspects. It also describes how the work with the environmental aspects often vary between different actors. The design of the ISO 14001 is intentionally broad in order to apply on all sorts of activities and organizations.

Despite the fact that mandatory financial auditing has been abolished for small private public companies in Sweden we still see this service being used by these firms. Earlier research, papers and published articles tend to focus on the abolishment of the mandatory audits seen from the accountant?s point of view. There has however been less emphasis on the fact that 85 percept of the companies relived from the mandatory audits still utilises this service. We think that we have found a new and until now unexplored angel on this subject, and the purpose of our study has been to explore what the Swedish bank officials and what the Swedish Tax Agency?s officials think that they have to gain from a mandatory financial audit.The scientific method used in the study is deduction due to the fact that existing theories has been used to form the hypothesis.

An environmental review has been carried out at FORIA AB, a transportation- and machine service company, to analyze the company?s environmental aspects from the transportation segment. This report describes the essential background and the methods of identifying and evaluate the environmental aspects. It also describes how the work with the environmental aspects often vary between different actors. The design of the ISO 14001 is intentionally broad in order to apply on all sorts of activities and organizations.

Environmental issues are global problems and they are a major challenge for any successful organizational business worldwide. Many challenges and opportunities emerge during the certification process of an EMS. Therefore it is interesting to contribute in understanding these emerging problems during this process.The aim of this study is to explore how the environmental objectives could be achieved at preschools in Uppsala, investigate the perceived challenges and opportunities and to identify the outcome of implementing the ISO 14001, Green Flag at such set up.A qualitative method is used and three Green Flag certified preschools, affiliated to the Uppsala Municipality and located at different geographical location were selected. A structured interview with the environmental representatives from the preschools and the municipality was completed. The so-called PDCA-cycle as a method of evaluating sustainable development and analysing the imperial data is used.The study showed that environmental certification constitutes a great challenge for the municipality of Uppsala.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate some aspects of teaching environmental issues, as they are manifested in another culture. In this paper, I will discuss how you teach environmental issues, how the teaching environment is formed, and what an environmental issue means to a South African teacher, as well as, if there are any cultural aspects to what an environmental issue is. Seven observations were made and qualitative interviews with four teachers teaching Life Science in Cradock, South Africa - The results showed that these South African teachers, independent from each other, followed a similar pattern in their teachings. These patterns contain gathering information concerning environmental issues in the immediate surroundings, as well as using the text book and teaching environmental issues through lectures. It was not possible to draw a conclusion about the cultural aspects in association to environmental issues.

In our study the purpose was to examine the influence of Continuing Professional Education on small and medium sized auditing- and accounting practices. The study also aims to analyze possible similarities and differences in how small and medium sized auditing and accounting practices are affected of the requirements regarding Continuing Professional Education. In order to fulfill our purpose in the study we conducted interviews with auditors and accounting consultants on small and medium sized auditing- and accounting practices. Totally did we conduct seven interviews with four auditors and three accounting consultants. The majority of auditors and accounting consultants we interviewed are satisfied with the current requirements on Continuing Professional Education and think they contribute to the increase of quality and status of the work tasks performed by auditors and accounting consultants.

Auditing has long existed and it was in 1899 that the first Swedish organization for accountants SRS, Swedish Audit Society, was created and in 1923 that FAR, Association of Chartered Accountants, was formed. It was after the Kreuger crash in the 1930s that authorized auditors had their breakthrough. After the crash the accounting profession has endured fierce criticism when the audit was flawed and it was during this period that authorized auditors became more widespread, the concept was developed independently and the importance of auditor independence became evident.We have in our paper therefore chosen to focus on auditor independence and to make that it requires the independence to relate to something. Therefore we have chosen to focus on the interaction between the auditor and the client. To explain what independence means we have used the analysis model, the expectation gap and communication, and explain what the audit entails and what tasks the auditor has.

Environmental management officers ? leadership and employeeship in local environmental health authorityThe purpose of this study was to illustrate the working situation of municipal environmental health management officers. This is a qualitative study where I have interviewed ten environmental officers in ten municipalities in Sweden. The interviews were based on a half structured interview guide with questions. I have interpreted the interviews through different leadership theories.