THE AUDIT EXPECTATION GAP IN FINLAND IN AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Society's expectations of auditors are many times not met by the actual performance of auditors, as perceived by society. This is called the expectation gap in auditing. The objective of this research study is to investigate the audit expectation gap problem in Finland, analyze its constituent parts and compare the research findings of this study to the findings of corresponding Anglo-Saxon studies. The auditor's responsibility in regard to fraud detection and reporting as well as the reporting of fraud and other illegal acts to authorities seem to be the major controversial issues. In addition, going concern reporting and correcting (complementing) possible misleading or incorrect information in the financial statements are other issues which contribute extensively to the expectation gap.