When it comes down to preparing the financial statements of a company,
             the auditor's opinion matters the most because he/ she is the one that
             provides the investors with critical assurance that the financial
             statements have been meticulously examined by an unbiased, and skilled
             professional, so that investors can blindly rely on them. It is mandatory
             for the auditors to be independent of a company; otherwise the investors
             will have little confidence in the auditor's opinion leading to fewer
             investments in that public company's stocks.
             Almost over three years ago, the collapse of several high profile
             companies notably, WorldCom and Enron made the investors in the United
             States have very little confidence left in making investments. The truth is
             that the world is very closely watching the US failures, and also
             questioning, why have they occurred' Where were the auditors' The instant
             reaction of the watchdogs worldwide has been to point the finger at the
             It is quite surprising to note that these failures roused debates in
             the media, especially, since it was discovered that the rendered useless
             accounting firm, Andersen, had signed on financial statements which
             overstated Enron's earnings by US$586 million over five years, and had
             evidently released a large volume of documents about the Enron collapse.
             The fraud committed by Andersen led investors to focus on the other
             accounting firms. Other evidence shows that in Australian Securities and
             Investments Commission survey of 100 of Australia's largest companies, it
             was found that most companies retained their audit firms to provide non-
             audit services. It was also discovered that on average, non-audit fees
             accounted for nearly 50 per cent of the total fees paid to the audit firm
             Auditors have the task o...