almost interchangeably (for example, on p. 19, “accounting profession” and “accounting industry” appear a mere 14 lines apart). Berenson (2004, p. xxxvi) ascribes what he considers to be a systemic failure in accounting and financial reporting to, among other factors, “the ethical failure of the accounting industry”. Several authors note the way in which the big accounting firms (not just Andersen) expanded into consulting, with audit often being used as a point of access for a firm’s consultants. Toffler (2003), who had acted in a mainly consultant-type role within Andersen, saw the growth of consulting in general, and the unhappy relationship with, and ultimate divorce of, Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) from the main Arthur Andersen firm, as a catalyst for more aggressive behaviour by the firm. Toffler compares the firm to another occupation often stereotyped as dull and boring: Like the librarian who takes off her glasses, shakes her hair loose, and transforms herself into a vamp, this once-practical, plodding, and reliable icon of American professional service firms was about to give itself a radical makeover. (Toffler, 2003, p. 137). The use of the term “professional service firm” itself signifies how Andersen’s had shifted from regarding the firm as a “public accountant”. The change in nature of accounting firms has also been noted by Fusaro & Miller (2002, p. 146): “accounting firms have grown from stodgy partnerships to international consulting behemoths whose top partners make millions of dollars a year”. Overall, the authors are aware that accounting firms of the 21st century are very different from their predecessors of a hundred years ago. This emerges in particular in the treatment of auditing and its relationship with consultancy. Brewster, who had worked for several years as communications director at KPMG, may occasionally come across as an apologist for the big accounting firms, a risk of reporting “from the inside” (Carnegie & Napier, 1996, p. 24), but he is willing to note how auditors came to undertake consultancy activities as a natural extension of the audit:
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