Каталог статей из сборников научных конференций и научных журналов- Problems of audit in Russia in a period after the financial crisis

M. V. Yarovoy Student,

E. N. Volkovitskaya Student,

Rostov State University of Economics,

Rostov-on-Don, Rostov oblast, Russia

We would like to start with the main document that regulates the audit activities in Russia, the definitions of this activity and the audit itself as a whole. Federal Law on Auditing Activity No. 307-FZ of 30 December 2008 defines audit as an independent verification of the financial statements of the audited entity in order to express an opinion on the reliability of such reporting. Auditing activities (audit services) are determined as activities for conducting audits and providing audit-related services, performed by audit organizations, individual auditors [1].

It should be noted that the audit allows market participants to receive information not only about their financial and property status, but also about the reliability of financial reporting, which is confirmed by independent external auditors. This, in turn, contributes to its timely detection of risks and enables management to take prompt action to minimize potential negative consequences. The audit institute plays a special role in the stability of the financial market – the quality of property protection of participants in this market largely depends on the development of audit.

However, today Russia is experiencing not only a crisis in the economy, but also a crisis of audit activity. An uneasy situation has developed in the market of audit services, the life of the audit community is being reshuffled, the prestige of the audit profession is declining, the problem of the reproduction of auditors has become more acute in recent years.

The development of the economy as a whole and of any industry in particular is characterized by a rise or a decline. In the period from 2014 to 2017 the dynamics of Russia's GDP was negative or did not exceed 1.5%, which indicates a global crisis in the country in these years. We will not discuss the causes of this crisis, but note its impact on the market of audit services. Firstly, in the period from 2014 to 2016 (Ministry of Finance have not published the data for 2017 yet) the volume of services provided increased by 3.5 billion rubles (up to 57.6 billion rubles), which at first glance indicates an increase in demand for audit services, but it is important to understand that when considering price indicators, it is necessary to take into account macroeconomic factors, the most important of which for determination of the real dynamics of the market volume is inflation rate, which during this period demonstrated a negative dynamics, therefore it can be concluded that there was no real growth of the audit services market in those years [2, p. 218]. Thus, the decline in business activity directly affected the demand for audit services – some firms ceased to exist, and some reduced costs either by refusing to conduct audits, or by selecting audit firms from the lowest price segments of the market, or by reducing the number of purchased services.

Naturally, business is always waiting for the auditor to provide real benefits and help. It should be noted that the activities of auditors and audit companies should be aimed at providing an economic effect to their customers. First, it is the effect in the management of tax risks. This direction assumes compliance with the control over the reliability of the calculation of the tax base, the correctness of the formation of tax obligations and the implementation of tax procedures. Secondly, it is an analysis of the effectiveness of business organization in various aspects, which is related to the audit of business processes, management accounting and information systems in terms of their usefulness and effectiveness. An important role is also played by audit of various assets, material and intellectual property and audit of management effectiveness in various areas of business organization. In this regard, we should note the second serious problem – the shortage of specialists, human capital, capable of benefiting.

An important barrier to the growth of the audit services market is a noticeable imbalance between very low earnings of auditors and a high level of their workload. This situation is primarily caused by dumping, which originated as a result of compulsory audit on a competitive basis. This is one of the most serious, and still unresolved problems in the development of audit activities. As already mentioned, firms in search of ways to reduce costs resort to the services of small audit firms from more affordable price categories, and often these firms provide greatly underpriced audit services and the quality of these services leaves much to be desired. It should be noted that performing substandard audit, these companies not only harm their clients who bear large risks associated with inaccurate information about the financial statements and the appropriateness of certain financial transactions, but also because of unfair competition reduce the level of the industry development in in general, as well as undermine the credibility of auditing.

The last considered in this paper, but very important problem of the audit profession is a complicated certification procedure. the importance of the problem is due to the high requirements for obtaining a certificate, while conducting such a qualification examination is accompanied by a considerable sum of money. The percentage of people who successfully passed the certification exam is very small. Together, these factors lead to aging of this sphere, because young specialists either do not dare even to try to pass the exam, including because of a mismatch in the wages of labor-intensive work, or simply do not pass it.

Summarizing we would like to stress that audit services market and audit profession in Russia are both going through hard times. High quality of audit services is the most important requirement not only from buyers of audit services to their sellers, but also from regulators of various markets [3, p. 10]. But reducing of the financial capacity due to the crisis has forced many companies to save on audit, which caused stagnation of the market for several years.

Bibliography

1. Federal Law No. 307-FZ dated 30.12.2008 "On Auditing Activities" // Rossiyskaya Gazeta - 2008. - No. 267.

2. Goreglyad V.P. Modern audit: problems and prospects. // Money and credit. - 2017. - No. 2. - P. 6-13.

3. Smertina E.N., Yarovoy M.V., Volkovitskaya E.N. Analysis of the dynamics of income of audit organizations in Russia in recent years / / Problems of effective use of the scientific potential of society: a collection of articles on the results of the International Scientific and Practical Conference (Novosibirsk, January 12, 2018). / in 3 parts Part 1 - Sterlitamak: AMI, 2018. - 302 p.