In September 2008, a proposition to limit Auditors? liability for statutory audit was launched by a Swedish Government official report. Auditors? legal liability in this respect has been joint and unlimited for more than 60 years in Sweden. By using a qualitative literature study method, this paper aims at discovering how the proposed change in legal liability affects the legitimacy of Auditors in Sweden.

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze how Auditors are affected by quality controls and if audit practice changes because of quality controls. To fulfill the purpose of this study there has been interviews made with five Auditors. The conclusion by this study is that the interviewed Auditors work practices are affected by quality controls and that the extent and effect depends on the auditor and the office that the auditor works in. The Auditors who worked as quality reviewers at the agencies where they are employed at, we felt that they were more secured in the response towards quality controls. This may be because they are quality reviewers themselves and they know what the quality control requires and what must be met to be approved.

Auditor independence is a subject that has been discussed frequently over the past decade. The meaning of auditor independence is complex and contains both independence of mind and independence in appearance. The environment must perceive the auditor as independent if the audited information is to have any value for the users of the audited statements. The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how Auditors can manifest their independence.

The definition of an expectation gap is, when the local municipal politician and the audited apprehensions and expectations gets apart about what Auditors are going to work with and what they are going to accomplish.Svenska Kommunförbundet writes in their publication Fullmäktige och revisionen (2004) that the communication between the Auditors and the audited is important so the final result becomes great. Apart from the communication, the recurring information about auditing is important to increase the knowledge and understanding. Are there expectations on what the Auditors are going to review and discover among the audited, when there probably are expectations from the inhabitants on the auditing. This leads us to our purpose of our essay which is to investigate and describe if there exist an expectation gap between the Auditors and the social welfare boards in the primary municipality. The method we used to collect our data was a guided telephone interview with 66 persons.

Law and regulations regulate the Auditors? independence. An auditor should not only be independent in general, but independence in fact and independence in appearance. However, the regulations do not specifically describe how to act independence. It is the concerns of the auditor were he puts his limit for the independence.

ABSTRACTThe auditor independence is constantly being questioned while discussing whether the auditor is really independent from the client. There are also factors threatening the auditor?s independency and decreasing the legitimacy towards the Auditors. One example is the long-term relationship between the auditor and the client.The analysis model is the most useful for the auditor to control his independency. Former studies show that the auditor?s judgments about the threat to independence differed among the Auditors.

Since 1999 Auditors have an obligation, according to 42-44 §§ aktiebolagslagen (2005:551), to report suspicions of crime. The obligation to report means that the auditor is legally obliged to report any suspicious economical crime potentially committed by the executive director or a member of the board to a district attorney. Prior to the enactment it was almost impossible for the auditor to report any criminal suspicion due to the professional confidentiality. According to Ekobrottsmyndigheten the number of crime suspicion reports filed by Auditors has reduced by 50 percent in the Stockholm-region between 2006 and 2010. However, after the enactment crime suspicion reports increased successively each year.

Problem: That the stakeholder?s expectations don´t answer to what Auditors can and may do have been a problem for several years. This problem was defined for the first time by Liggio at 1974. Since 1974 there have been several researches about the expectation gap for Auditors.Purpose: The purpose of our study is to research what the audit effort in HQ Bank means for the expectation gap.Theory: The theories in our study discuss the audit profession, the definition of the expectation gap, how trust develops between individuals, the regulations that the authorities discuss and a review of earlier researches in this subject.Method: We have done a qualitative study in which we interviewed approved Auditors at PwC and Convensia in addition we interviewed the chief lawyer at the Swedish financial supervisory authority to answer our purpose.Conclusions: The conclusion of our study is that the expectation gap exists between the Auditors and the stakeholders. Another conclusion is that the incidents in HQ Bank have influenced the expectation gap in a negative direction, to reduce the expectation gap we suggest that adjustments of the regulations must be done and that the Auditors themselves must inform their stakeholders what Auditors can and may do..

Aim: Auditors objectivity is an obvious part of auditing, but there is doubts and hesitation in society today because of the corporate scandals that have occurred in recent years. Several researchers suggest that Auditors actions and behaviors is connected to the ethical climate within the organization. A relationship that also affects Auditors objectivity and independence. This thesis aims to investigate how the ethical climate influence Auditors choice of relationship to their clients, by choosing a relational and close relationship or a transactional and distanced relationship. And if the client approach have an effect on the Auditors objectivity.Method: A survey was conducted among 232 certified accountants in Sweden.

Swedish accountants are, amongst other laws, controlled by a couple of so called duties. One of those is the professional secrecy, which guarantees the safety of company secrets and other important information that the accountant needs to know but shouldn?t tell anybody. Since 1999 Swedish accountants also need to follow the regulations of the reporting duty. In short, this means that in some cases of suspected crime within a company, Auditors are obliged to report this to the authorities.

The aim of the study is to describe and analyze bank officials' views about what Auditors will do. The main motivation comes from the government?s proposals that the audit duty will be abolished and it can lead to that bank officials in a bigger extent can influence the audit?s formulation. It can also lead to that a consumer audit becomes reality. The study covers a sample of 302 bank officials where 153 have participated through a survey questionnaire.

The purpose of this thesis is to create a deeper and also a better understanding about how each of the professional secrecy and obligation to report are perceived from Auditors and further investigate how the potential conflicts based on independence and ?can be suspect? are handled by the Auditors. The purpose has been achieved through interviews with four different accounting firms.The interviews were conducted with Grant Thornton, BDO Mälardalen AB, PwC and KPMG to answer the research questions. Subsequently, a hermeneutic approach was used to since the interpretation of the interviews was considered as important to obtain knowledge of the respondent?s perception about the topic.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to seek understanding, describe and analyse how Auditors practically reassure and maintain their independence towards clients.Methodology: The study is conducted with a qualitative method with a deductive approach. The study is based on interviews with both experienced and recently graduated Auditors.Conclusion: Our empirical results show that there are economical incentives that contradict the requirements to fulfil the auditor?s independence. The conclusion is that the media view is narrow and biased. Furthermore the Auditors agree that an acceptable level of comfort is achieved by offering a high value, being a part of a large network of professionals and the ability to set materiality and evaluate risks. .

Auditing demands knowledge in many diverse areas. To be able to provide all this knowledge it is necessary for the auditor to have access to persons with special skills. Through these contacts the auditor builds up a business network that brings support in the daily work. Our purpose with this study is to find out how auditor?s network in big auditing firms is organized and to show how they use their network.

The purpose of our essay is to examine if variation exists in the way that Auditors try their independence, this so called analysis-model. We will suggest some factors that influence the way Auditors practise the analysis-model. The institutional theory predicts no differencies since the normative pressure could be expected to be severe. But we found that among other things people?s qualifications, personalities and audit firm?s size and age influence the way Auditors try their independence.