Ethics in the Auditing Profession in Ethiopia: Independence in Relation to Compatibility of Services and Tenure of Audit Firms in Addis Ababa

In today?s world where many auditing scandals are happening audit firms in one or another way may be held responsible for the fraudulent accounting practices. US companies Enron and World Com can be typical examples with regard to this type of scandal. Among those questions which were raised in the press and by government authorities were: How could this have happened? Where were the auditors? One of the controversial issues concerning ethics in the auditing profession is the impact of delivering non-audit services and extended audit tenures on audit firms? independence. This book tries to assess this by taking a survey of 13 private audit firms which are working in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. According to the sampled audit firms, an attempt has been made to answer the following questions: What are the arguments in favor of delivering non-audit services by the audit firms to their clients? And which are against it? Which studies showed thumbs up for extended audit tenure between a client and an audit firm? And which thumbs down? Does the provision of non-audit services & extended audit tenure by audit firms to their clients positively or negatively affect the independence of audit firms?