A review of Revisorsnämnden´s disciplinary actions : Swedish reactions to accounting scandals

In the beginning of the 21st century the accounting scandals of Enron and WorldCom took place. After these scandals there was a demand for an improved supervision since the trust of auditors had decreased as a result of the scandals. If the supervision of auditors increases there is a possibility that the auditors will perform the audit more accurate and the material errors in the financial statements will decline. Revisorsnämnden (RN) is a governmental authority that performs supervision of auditors in Sweden. Some of the supervision has been delegated to the Swedish trade organization Föreningen för Auktoriserade Revisorer. When an auditor has failed to fulfill the obligations of an audit a disciplinary action is started and can lead to a disciplinary measure for the auditor. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the Swedish supervision of auditors works today and also if it is possible to see a change of the disciplinary actions as a result of the accounting scandals. The most common categories of problems will also be examined. To answer the research questions we have conducted a document study of the disciplinary actions of RN. The document study has shown which the most frequently occurring problems of auditing are and which disciplinary measures that have been given. The document study showed that there is not a clear change of the disciplinary actions as a result of the accounting scandals except for the category of independence/disqualification. The most common categories of problems are independence/disqualification, lack of documentation, inventories, the auditor´s own fault, assets and taxes and fees