The consideration of environmental matters in financial reports: some preliminary evidence on current audit practices

This paper reports preliminary findings on what are current practices in the audit consideration of environmental matters in financial reports. It also reports on auditors’ perceptions of their responsibility for verifying environmental matters and whether AGS 1010 has impacted on current audit practice. The preliminary findings indicate that auditors do not consider environmental matters as a key audit risk area despite their implications for the community and public interest. Environmental matters (provided they have a financial impact on the company’s financial report) are considered mainly for those companies operating in a sector or industry that is exposed to significant environmental risk. Auditors depend on management in the client company to disclose information of any audit significance. They do not pro-actively search out environmental risk exposures for all their audit clients. The promulgation of AGS-1010 in 2001 apparently has little impact on how auditors take environmental matters into consideration when auditing financial reports