Get ready for heating up of debate on #auditreform ahead of U.K. govt’s White Paper. Carsten Jung, Senior Economist @IPPR :”Audit firms should play a critical safeguarding role in our economy and society. We all rely on them to ensure businesses act truthfully and stick to rules”

A group of civil society organisations, individuals and institutions including @Greenpeace @IPPR @richardjmurphy @sheffielduni and more have called for urgent reform of the audit profession. Civil Society gets involved. #stakeholdergovernance #CorpGov

They stress that company accounts must include information on #climateaction and that auditors must robustly review this information

The group supports the separation of audit and consulting functions within professional services firms to reduce conflict of interest/argues for stricter penalties such as fines and debarment from public contracts on failure to do the job properly

Adam Leaver Sheffield Uni : “A more resilient economy needs a joined-up approach that links #audit reform to the reform of #accounting standards and #corporategovernance in order to place the principle of capital maintenance at the centre of policy initiatives”

“If corporate accounts don’t reflect the mounting climate risks, companies will overestimate their future profitability and continue to spend on high #carbon projects driving the planet past UN climate goals, as well as destroying shareholder value.” Charlie Kronick @Greenpeace

“Our research shows that last year >96% of #audit reports for U.K. top listed firms failed to clearly disclose whether #climate had been considered by auditors” : Joanne Etherton @ClientEarth

“We should expect the highest standards from auditors - but time and again they have let us down.... these failures have enabled kleptocrats, corrupt officials and fraudsters to get away with illegal behaviour at huge social cost” : Susan Hawley @ Spotlight on #Corruption