For example, holding all else equal, audit firm dismissals during the fieldwork stage of the audit are more likely to reflect client
opinion shopping than are dismissals during other stages of the financial reporting process.
Thus, there appears to be very little
opinion shopping (if any) occurring post-SOX.
Fritz expects a great deal of scrutiny from investigators on Lehman's
opinion shopping and says it could raise problems for the defunct company's former in-house lawyers.
When first addressed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a means to curtail
opinion shopping, Form 8-K filings were required only when there was a disagreement between a company and its auditors.
Evidence on
opinion shopping from audit opinion conservatism.
Previous research suggests that
opinion shopping is generally unsuccessful (e.
Matt Howell, Deloitte's technical partner, says his firm would not get involved in
opinion shopping, and it is already implementing IAS 29 where applicable.
To deter
opinion shopping and ensure that opinions are based on the actual facts of a transaction rather than unjustified assumptions, the scope of the reasonable cause exception should be clarified.
Further, it may be easier for lenders to go
opinion shopping for another appraiser if the desired value change is small, as conservative assumptions are more easily justifiable than a large value change.
He emphasized that audit committees' responsibility goes beyond ensuring they're not
opinion shopping, which is illegal.
The book discusses many of the significant controversies of Chenok's time: accountants' legal liability, government investigation, preservation of self-regulation, changes in the code of professional conduct,
opinion shopping, commissions and contingent fees, proper financial reporting, the role of FASB, standards overload, specialization and accreditation, accounting education, minority involvement, and the scope of services.
The practice of
opinion shopping may adversely affect the perception of audit constituencies about the independent audit function, and thus the credibility of the accounting profession.
