CHAPTER ONE

 1.0   INTRODUCTION

 This research work is on the impact of auditing in enhancing business survival: A case study of    guaranteed trust bank (GTBank) and united bank for Africa (UBA).

 Auditing has been the backbone of the complicated business world and has always changed with times. As the business world grew strong horizontally and vertically, auditors’ role becomes more complex and challenging. The auditors’ job becomes more difficult and complicating as the accounting principles and standards changes. Organizations application of internal control software and use of internal controls specialists, which introduces the need for testing, makes audit assignments fairly easy and reduces the scope covered as reliance is placed by the auditor on the works done by the internal control specialists. Scandals and stock market crashes, failure of some financial institutions and sudden failures of many companies highlighted to the auditors the deficiencies in auditing and loopholes in audit work. This also led to several innovations which made the auditors and the auditing community to quickly review their operations and fix the anomalies.

The practice of auditing existed even in the Vedic period. Historical records show that Egyptians, Greeks and Roman used to get this public account scrutinized by and independent official. Kautaly in his book “arthshastra” has stated that “all undertakings depend on finance; hence foremost attention should be paid to the treasury”.

Auditing as it exists today can be associated with the emerging of Joint Stock Company during the industrial revolution.

  Historically the word “audit” was derived from the Latin word “audire”, meaning “to hear”. The practice of auditing has existed since the primitive days when men were required to account for their transactions. This was developed from the concept of stewardship, where by productive resources were supplied by person or group of persons. These providers of funds would in turn require the stewards of the business to give an account of stewardship accordingly at the end of a particular period of how the resources given to them were been expected.

   The practice of stewardship can be linked to present day limited liability companies, which are owned by shareholders, who provide the finance for running the business and managed by directors appointed by them.

“Auditing as we understand now has its root two or three hundred years ago in the first division of interest between those engaged in a business undertaking (the entrepreneurs) and those who made the finance available without necessary becoming directing involved in the day to day management.