The head of the country’s biggest accounting firm has admitted there are deep problems in the local audit market with clients who buy on price not quality and who treat the service as a commodity.
PwC Australia chief executive Luke Sayers said strong competition had led to “downward pressure on the price of audits” and the firm had to fight to ensure clients saw audit “as a value add service, rather than a regulatory exercise or commodity”.
“Competition amongst audit firms in Australia remains strong and an outcome of this has been downward pressure on the price of audits in recent years,” Mr Sayers said.
However, he insisted there was no impact on audit quality or independence and there was no case to break up the firms as is being considered in the UK.
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