VC’s Opening Speech for Continuous Auditing Symposium (Draft)
Ladies and Gentlemen:
On behalf of the University of Salford, I should like to welcome you to the Fourth World Continuous Auditing and Reporting Symposium. Although this is the Fourth World Continuous Auditing and Reporting Symposium, it is only the first one to be held outside the USA, and the university is honoured to be chosen for this. We warmly welcome you all to Salford and we wish you a pleasant and educational stay with us.
When I first heard about the title of this symposium - Continuous Auditing - from our organizers in the Information Systems Institute, I really thought that 1984 and Big Brother were finally arriving (even if they are nearly 20 years too late). I don’t know what our Financial Director would think about every key stroke being captured and sent to either the Inland Revenue, HM Customs and Excise, the Universities Grants Council or our external auditors. I am sure he is relieved that currently they only visit the university once per year. I understand that in the audience we have delegates from the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise and that Ray Butler, from HM Customs and Excise, will be talking about the importance of Continuous Assurance in the tax compliance domain. I can only say that I am glad that our financial director is not here in the audience, or I am sure that it would cause him, if not many sleepness nights, at least much to worry about.
Of course, given the recent scandal concerning Enron, and the belief, I am sure by many in this audience, including Professor Vasarhelyi a world renowned expert, that this could have been avoided if continuous auditing had been operational in that organization, I am certain that we all see the benefits of this subject area. It is gratifying to know that we have some of the leading researchers in the field within this audience, and that the first software solutions are now being tested so that soon we will have operational continuous auditing and reporting systems live in the field.
Continuous reporting is important for many stakeholders in a business since it provides guarantees that the financial figures may be relied upon. It may be a bank or credit company that requires these figures or even the shareholders themselves. Our own researcher, Robert Onions, is particularly concerned about SMEs as it is a commonly held belief that these organisations are more at risk from fraudulent behaviour than the larger companies who can afford internal audit departments and more sophisticated technologies. From his research, he is hoping to produce a continuous auditing tool for use by the 3.2 million SMEs in UK and the 26 million SMEs in the USA, so that we in some small part, can help to eradicate fraud in SMEs. Recent figures suggest that in the year 2000 in the UK, 82% of all reported fraud was carried out by employees; and that 67% of companies suffered some sort of electronic fraud or cyber attack. In 2001 in the UK alone, fraud figure was estimated at £13 billion. On the opposite front, the UK government raised the threshold for a mandatory audit to £1 million turnover in 2000, and this will soon be raised to £4.8 million. This means that the likelihood of undiscovered fraud will be increased; consequently continuous auditing has never been more needed than it is today, and this will become even more necessary in the future. It is therefore good that we have, at this symposium, the benefit of sharing our recent results with each other.
But lets not forget that all good symposiums are a combination of work and play. So whilst you are here, I would like you to experience something of the multicultural and varied life of Greater Manchester. I understand that it will start tonight with a trip to the curry capital of the North West – Rusholme – where you will enjoy your symposium dinner with a distinctly Indian flavour. If you have time this weekend you should also visit the Lowry Centre, the world famous Manchester United football club (who I understand are playing at home tomorrow/ who unfortunately are not playing at home tomorrow, but their souvenir shop will be open – Barbara can you check this out for me please and delete the incorrect sentence.), plus for those of you with accompanying partners who like shopping – the Trafford Centre. You might then complete the day with a visit to Manchester’s famous China town for an oriental meal tomorrow evening. (Note I am not a Mancunian, if you have any other good suggestions to add here, please do so)
Finally, I would like to welcome our generous sponsors for this year:- the Institute of Chartered Accountants, England and Wales who are sponsoring a significant part of this symposium. Welcome and thanks to Deborah Chaplin from ICAEW.
Our platinum sponsors, Audicon GmbH of Germany, who are working with Ernst and Young to develop continuous auditing and reporting software solutions. Welcome and thanks to Carl Anderson, Joerg Fuhrmann and Andrew Nutz.
Our gold sponsors, ACL Europe, who I understand already have some Continuous Auditing software developed. Welcome and thanks to Tim Sinnaeve, Jonathan Randles and Anton Bouwer.
Our silver sponsors, the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, Northern UK Chapter, whom we have had a long and fruitful relationship with over many years. Welcome to Paul Williams who is here on behalf of ISACA and will be writing a report for its magazine 'IS Control'.
Finally, the AIET section of the American Accounting Association and Rutgers University, New Jersey, Accounting Research Centre, for their help with this event.
I now hand over to Robert Onions who will chair the event.