CHALLENGES TO PROFESSIONAL ETHICS, TRAINING AND CONTINUING EDUCATION OF SPECIALISTS IN THE FIELD OF INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL AUDIT
Authors: Iankova Natchkova Maia 
Published: March 2020

Auditor’s profession is extremely necessary and crucial for the society. It has the important and responsible task to observe and assess the proper implementation of the principles, concepts, rules, legal standards and conventions as set out in the International Financial Reporting Standards/ International Accounting Standards, EU directives, International Standards on Auditing and the national (local) accounting legislation. Specialists in the field of independent financial audit – chartered expert accountants, registered auditors, should verify the timely, reliable, objective, correct, accurate and fair presentation, in all material aspects, of the information about the property and financial position of enterprises, their financial performance, and to determine the opportunities for investing and managing the capitals of audited enterprises in the interest of the society. Auditor’s profession is distinguished with moral at high level and professional ethics of chartered expert accountants, registered auditors; with extreme professionalism in the field of independent financial audit; with professional skepticism in the field of accounting and economic analysis; with professional optimism upon undertraining audit engagements; with independence from personal interests and lack of obligation for loyalty to the assigners of audit engagements; with ensuring high quality performance of audit engagements; with professional and intellectual knowledge and skills in the field of accounting, financial audit, economic analysis, micro- and macroeconomics, statistics and finance acquired upon completion of higher education in economics, upon sitting special examinations for obtaining qualification of chartered expert accountants, registered auditors, and upon carrying out constant and continuing education of auditors. For the purposes of keeping the trust of the society in the independent financial audit, registered auditor’s professional ethics needs to be at high level that enables authoritative and competent establishment of the role and significance of auditor’s profession in the society. Independent financial auditors should observe specific standards of conduct and fundamental professional and ethical principles as set out in the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, such as honesty, objectivity, professional competence and proper attention, confidentiality, professional conduct, observance of methodological standards and professional skepticism. They should avoid actions that could discredit the auditor’s profession and have negative impact on the good reputation of the registered auditor. Furthermore, where independent financial auditors market and promote themselves or their audit practice, they should avoid giving the society wrong idea of auditor’s profession. The work of chartered expert accountants, registered auditors is diverse and to a great extent characterized by development of the financial risk. Therefore, this study highlights some of the more significant and socially important specific characteristics of the auditor’s profession, which are monitored by the public and by the government authority supervising the work of the registered auditors. Its objective is to present, determine and distinguish the challenges in the light of good world audit practices faced by the professional ethics, training and continuing education of specialists in the field of independent financial audit, thus contributing to the improvement of their qualification and enhancement of their audit practice. This publication may be used for carrying out different types of financial audit – internal audit carried out by the financial enterprises’ internal units; independent financial audit carried out by chartered expert accountants, registered auditors, and external audit carried out by the government supervisory authority and by other government authorities.