US auditors have a responsibility to detect fraud, and failure to do so is a breach of their responsibility to investors and the public, the SEC’s top accountant said Tuesday.
Auditors are gatekeepers, and their importance to “the detection of material misstatements in the financial statements due to fraud should not be underestimated,” Paul Munter, acting chief accountant to the Securities and Exchange Commission, said in written staff guidance. He urged auditors to work harder to uncover errors and be more skeptical of corporate managers.
Munter warned that auditors shouldn’t focus on what they are “not required ...