As Scotland heads into an election, the constitutional question is at the heart of all parties’ campaigns. The future of Scotland and of the Union are at stake in what is primarily a trial of strength between pro-independence and anti-independence camps. Despite attempts to draw attention to pressing bread-and-butter issues, such as the economy, infrastructure, public services and pandemic response, these seem set to remain of only secondary concern as long as independence is unresolved. Yet the oddity, in a political landscape dominated by a constitutional impasse, is that no one is really talking about the constitution. Both sides are obsessed with the ‘status question’ – whether Scotland should be an independent state or not – and have totally overlooked the ‘constitutional question’ of how that state is to be governed.
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Expand role of auditors to close expectation gap, think tank says
Carillion collapsed in 2018 despite getting a clean bill of health just months earlier (Yui Mok/PA)
The role that auditors have should be expanded to close an expectation gap between public perception and what the industry actually does.
It would help prevent the large number of “small-scale, silent Carillions” that are likely to be happening every year, according to the authors of a new report.
Often there is a gap between what people think that audits should do, and what duties auditors perform.
Current rules mean there has been an “audit failure” when auditors do not discover fraud or misstatements, however the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) argued that auditors should also be forced to report when companies are using aggressive accounting practices.
Greensill Bank s office in Bremen
Credit:
Markus Hibbeler /BloombergÂ
Bloomberg reports prosecutors are raiding the offices of Greensill bank, the lender that collapsed recently with billions of debts.
The homes of five suspects in Bremen were also raided by prosecutors investigating accounting irregularities, the publication said.
Bloomberg has the details: Â
Searches in the bankâs offices started last week and are continuing, said Frank Passade, a spokesman for prosecutors. Investigators on Tuesday also raided the homes of some of the five suspects in the probe. âThe raid continues as long as we say it continues,â Passade said. âThis gives us the opportunity to get into the bankâs offices whenever we need it.â