Kuntien tilintarkastuksen laatu ja toimivuus : Nykytila ja kehittämistarpeet

The aim of the research project was to investigate the present state, problems and needs of developing municipal statutory auditing in Finland. The research report contains several proposals of actions regarding improvements in conditions for municipal auditing and efficient municipal audit market.
Local governments as buyers of statutory municipal audit services are mainly satisfied with the received service. However, the research revealed several shortages in audit procurement competence in municipalities. Furthermore, there are signs of certain problems in audit quality matters based on the observations done in in the audit control unit of the National Board of Patents and Registration. The reduction of audit firms offering municipal statutory auditing is also a worrying phenomenon. The competitive tendering of municipal statutory audit services seems to have led to weak prices and to a such an amount of auditing that generates a risk for the sound auditing procedure. Connected to this observation was that some of the interviewed auditors wished that the good auditing method definition should be clarified especially in relation to the international auditing standards. Interviewed auditors wished also that the national audit control unit could increase its interaction with the professional municipal auditors.