Literature Review
Original Ideals and Postulates
The key principle of audit is that it should be a professional and objective process. An approach that has been assumed by Flint, (1971), and a theme that is strongly supported by the majority of the literature written on this subject. This idea is supported by Mautz and Sharaf (1961), who created an outline of standards that auditors should work, to in order to achieve the highest level of professionalism. To be able to achieve this level of professionalism it can be seen that a conceptual framework must be in place, it was for this reason Mautz and Sharaf created eight postulates as a foundation for a framework. They created their postulates based on a ‘...careful study of the nature and activities of auditing...’,(Mautz and Sharaf, 1961, pg 41, ).It was this study which allowed them to create the postulates that are the underlying assumptions of modern audit theory and practice. Flint in 1988 developed this idea but rather than eight postulates he suggests seven very different basic postulates.
The postulates Flint created are based upon the idea that audit has a much broader effect on society, this basis can be seen within the postulates. When we look at the first postulate Flint states, ‘... Auditing can be said to act as an element of social control within the process of corporate or public accountability...’ (Flint, 1971) This suggests that Flint felt that audit was not only affected by society but also that audit is actually one of the key controls that operate within society. Further mention of the effect audits create within society is seen in postulate five which discusses the method that is used to set standards within the audit industry. Flint states that ‘...The social objective of an audit can be achieved only if standards of accountability are established for each class of organisation and each type