C/F/191. Social and Environmental Auditing

This paper writes on two themes. One on the environmental and social audit, and the second on the independence of auditors. It finds that environmental audits are of the two, the only one which has maintained credibility in a capitalist oriented market. Whatever the arguments for social audits, it cannot truly be sustained or worked in such a way as to satisfy all concerned parties. With the growing discord over the damage commercial enterprises are committing to the environment, members of the public are becoming quite concerned over the impact of the company on the environment. Such concern will affect their future investments. So much so that even governments are forced into recognising and acting on that concern. On independence of auditors, it finds that independence is largely within the purview of those conducting the audit. The two main concerns over auditor independence is managerial control over the appointment of auditors and the provision of additional unrelated services to these same companies by these same auditors. The general opinions on the suggested solutions are given, with a commentary.