Percepção dos auditores independentes em relação aos controles internos nas empresas S.A. da região sul do Brasil

Abstract

One of the biggest changes in what we understand about organizational internal controls occurred with the creation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), which required more robust control procedures, in order to provide security and integrity to the information disclosed by companies to the market, after the various accounting scandals that occurred in the United States, such as the famous Enrol case. In this context, the objective of this research work was to analyze the perception of the independent auditors of the Big Four in the South of Brazil about the importance of internal controls developed within the S.A. companies audited by them. Therefore, a questionnaire with 6 questions was created to verify the profile of the respondents and 11 questions about knowledge related to controls, subdivided into six topics: i) knowledge related to controls; ii) knowledge related to Sox; iii) generation of more consistent information; iv) importance attributed to internal controls in S.A companies; and vi) influence of controls on auditors' opinions. The sample of correspondents was composed of independent auditors from different areas of the Big Four in southern Brazil. From the answers obtained, it was possible to observe that, in general, independent auditors have a positive perception of the importance of a robust internal control system. It was also possible to confirm that auditors demonstrate greater confidence in audits where internal controls are effective and that the use of evidence and information generated in the control areas can be discouraged, in order to assist the auditor in forming his audit opinion