Expectation GAP em Auditoria: análise da percepção de contadores, estudantes e outros usuários quanto às responsabilidades do auditor independente

Abstract

The aim of this work is to identify the society's perception of the responsibilities of the independent auditor through the Technical Norms for Audit Work. The perception of accountants, accounting students and other users of financial statements were identified, seeking to identify the expectations of society regarding the audit work, as well as identify the factors that help to make such expectations more realistics. Data collection was performed using a questionnaire, divided into questions to know the profile of the respondent, level of familiarity about auditing, and assertive questions using Linkert scale for the measurement of social perception regarding the responsibilities of the auditor. Four types of analyzes were used, one descriptive, one factorial, one of the variables denoting familiarity and one of the differences of expectations between the groups, so that there was greater understanding of the subject and interpretation of the data. The analysis and interpretation of the data made it possible to perceive that the society has different expectations of what the norms require regarding the responsibilities of the auditor in all contexts analyzed, being the context referring to the fraud which reached the highest levels of expectations on the part of those users who had low level of knowledge about auditing and the lowest level of expectations on the part of those users who had a higher level of knowledge about auditing. It was verified that different groups have different expectations, besides being identified that factors such as the study in audit, frequency of reading financial reports, have already read or consulted audit reports and the knowledge of the audit norms can help to reach more realistic expectations.