The Capability and Competency Requirements of Auditors in Today’s Complex Global Business Environment

In 2013 ICAS and the UK Financial Reporting Council (FRC) commissioned two international teams of researchers to undertake studies to investigate what mix of attributes, competencies, professional skills and qualities need to be combined in an audit team in order for it to perform a high quality public interest audit in a modern and complex global business environment.

This report is one of the two independent research reports published as a result of this call for research.

This report explores the views of key audit stakeholders in Australia, South Africa and the UK.  The researchers conducted interviews with individuals who are directly involved in the audit process (engagement partners, chairs of audit committees, chief financial officers, chief audit executives (internal audit) and experts) in six of the largest listed companies in Australia, South Africa and the UK.  Individuals who have some oversight, public policy or educative role with regard to audit, in each of the three countries, were also interviewed, giving a total of 84 interviews.