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Foreword：Prof. Wen Shuo's The World History of Auditing(II)
(2007-10-05 02:49:47)
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yangshizhanauditing |
分类： 广告与财经 |
I've always believed that auditing not only
begins with the emerging of accounta bility, but also evolves with
the development of accountability.
In the slave society in which "all the land is owned by the king and every one i s his subject", the slave holders owned everything. It's only natural that they were the trusters of
the society while a handful of wealthy slaves responsible f or the
management for the slaves holders were the trustees; In the feudal
societ y , the feudal monarchs and landlords were the trusters
while the feudal bureaucra ts and the housekeepers of landlords (
such as Wu Jinxiao and his like described in the
Dream of the Red Mansion) were the trustees;In the capitalist
society, t he tax payers represented by the bourgeoises are the
trusters while the capitali st government at different levels are
the trustees. In the socialist country, th e broad masses of people
are the trusters and the people's government at differe nt levels
are the trustees. Based on this view, we may conclude that the
evoluti on of human societies has been reflected in the replacement
of trusters by trust ees because of the rise and fall of the class
forces they represent. In the proc ess, the number of the trusters
has expanded greatly and the supervision over th e achievement of
accountability has become more strict and accountability
proper has gained rich content.
In the enlightening period of democracy, the people's request was limited to how much would be taken from the
people. They were entitled to refuse the attempt o f exceeding the
ceiling but would never inquire about how the money from the peo p
le was spent. With the development of the society and the growth of
the people's conscience of democracy, the people
began to demand that all taken from the peo ple should be used for
the people. Anyone who didn't would be enjoined to should er
political responsibility. With the further development of the
society and the further growth of democratic
rights, the people began to demand that all taken
from the people must be used for the people
economically、efficiently and effect ively. The government would
still be held responsible if they didn't use the mon ey efficiently
and failed the expectation of the people.For the past two
decade when democracy and production force in the
west enjoys further growth, the issue s of pollution, noise, the
health and well being of the worker, the protection o f the women's
and children's rights and the maintenance of ecological balance ha
ve captured increasing attention and concern. The people are now
demanding the i nput of social responsibility in accountability
thus bring about the concept of
social auditing. Proceeded from this point of view, we can see that
a history of auditing is
virtually a history of democracy as well as a history of
accountabil ity. This theme runs through the book on the history of
auditing by Prof. Wen fr o m the beginning to the end. The supreme
form of accountability is political resp onsibility. In the west,
to be held responsible politically means the
step-down of the government because of the loss
of trust by the people.
The history of auditing shows that in a democratic society where auditing can pl ay a full role, auditing and bureaucratism can never reconcile with each other. Instead, the
former is a strong antidote of the latter. From the perspective
of ac countability, no case of irresponsibility
characterized by bureaucratism has sur vived auditing successfully
and no auditing has left any room to bureaucratism.T his is how the
history has been going:Bureaucratism can hardly run wide in the c
ountry where the system of auditing can be carried out speedily and
resolutely. On the contrary, the system of
auditing fails to play a full role where bureaucr atism is
rampant.No examples can be found to prove the
opposite.
In the slave society in which "all the land is owned by the king and every one i s his subject", the slave holders owned everything. It's only natural that they
In the enlightening period of democracy, the people's request was limited to how
The history of auditing shows that in a democratic society where auditing can pl ay a full role, auditing and bureaucratism can never reconcile with each other.
By introducing the development history of
auditing in different countries, Prof. Wen shuo has concluded in
the book that the modernization of auditing can only b e realized
in the process of political democratization. Without the insurance
of democratic politics, the modernization of
auditing will proceed very showly or even go
astray. In the meanwhile, by using the examples of Britain and
U.S.A., t he author points out clearly that the modernization of
politics doesn't ensure a n immediate modernization of auditing as
the latter hinges on the profound under standing of the
relationship with the former by the auditors and statesmen. I qu
ite go along with the idea. In the meanwhile, I feel that without
the guarantee of modern auditing, political
democratization can hardly be free from the seriou s impediment
caused by bureaucratism. democracu is the dssence and the ends
of modern auditing while auditing is the
demonstrration and means of modern democr a cy. modern auditing
will lose its significence if without the ends of modern dem o
cracythid constitutes the basis for theory, namely, modern auditing
must proceed form accountability.
Accountability boils down to the issue of "loyalty" and "disloyalty" while the s ense of accountability is in essence the sense of democracy.
The key to democratic politics is not as some people suppose, thequality of the people. Even without labeling
it as non-Marxist-Leninist, it is still not true t o the fact to
justify the failure of practising democratic politics under the ex
cuse of "the poor quality of the people". It's only natural that
the quality of the people in the primitive age
were not as good as that of us today, we can nev er deny the
YiruokuiClan and the Chirad Clan described by Engles being a
democra tic society. The key to democratic politics lies in the
quality of the public se rvants of the people. If they are
furnished with a strong sense of accountabilit y and consider
themselves the servants and trustees of the people to whom they s
how unswerving loyalty instead of the other way round as what Den
Xiaoping refer to some leaders "who deem
themselvesas the masters instead of the servants of t he people"
(page 292 of the Selected works of Deng Xiaoping), the so-called
"poo r quality" of the people wouldn't prevent themselves from
being the masters of t he country. In the early liberated-area, the
strong sense of public servants sha r ed by the cardres ensured the
successful practice of free eclection of their ser vants by the
people by way of casting of beans instead of votes. This demonstrat
es that illiteracy does not prevent the people from exercizing
their rights. How ever, one thing to be asked is, "Is the quality
of the Chinese really poor?" The Chinese people
always have a good sense of right and wrong, not to mention thei r
commonly acknowledged quality of industry and intelligence. For
example, they h ave always spoken highly of Mr.
Zhu Geliang, who, being afraid of failing the ex pectation of the
ancestors, bent his back till his dying day in helping the Empe ror
Ardou who was infamous for his poor quality; Likewise, they have
never menti oned Chaoman without referring to a treacherous court
official who took hostage of the emperor to
command the kings and never show any respect to Emperor Liuxie ,
Xian.
We never disagree that the quality of trustees should be better than that of the trusters, otherwise, it wouldn't
be necessary to entrust on them! In the eyes o f those who believe
in "the peoples'quality theory", the quality of the people i n the
west today are high enough for democratic politics. However, I
wonder whet her they have ever noticed that these people are also
being fooled around by the politicians who claim
themselves to be of higher quality and the champions of d emocracy.
This is determined by the state system. Aren't these examples
adequate to show that the key
to democratic politics, instead of being the "quality of th e
people", is the sense of accountability, the loyalty to the people
by the publ ic servants? Determinedby our state system, the
politics of the People's China h as always be for the people and
the majority of the carders are bound to serve t he people
wholeheartedly and give full play to the advantage of socialism as
lon g as they form a clear sense of accountability. Socialist
democracy will have fu lly developed when bureaucratism is smashed
and a healthy auditing system so as to change the
phenomena of "inadequate advocation and practice of democracy" cri
ticised by Deng Xiao ping (page 162 of the Selected Works of Deng
Xiaoping) will be conducive in anyway to the
persistence of the Four Cardinal Principles, the
stability of the country and the realization of a highstandard
democracy.
Accountability boils down to the issue of "loyalty" and "disloyalty" while the s ense of accountability is in essence the sense of democracy.
The key to democratic politics is not as some people suppose, thequality of the
We never disagree that the quality of trustees should be better than that of the
Prof.Wen shuo is well-known to us. Many of
his previous works are known for thei r rich content, keen insight,
tight structure and fresh and lively diction
which is kept and further developed in this book,
the World History of Auditing. The book has over
600,000 words divided into five parts with its focus on accountabi
lity. The first three parts deal with the history of state
auditing, auditing by CPA and internal auditing
development. Emphasis is given to the role of state a uditing
combating bureaucratism in democratic political entity, of auditing
by C PA in establishing and maintaining the integrity of capital
markets and of inter nal auditing in strengthening business
management and enhancing economic efficie ncy. The fourth part
examines the development of recent audit firm mergers (acco unting
services from Big Eight to Big Six). The fifth part is devoted to
the his tory of auditing on specific subjects of
eleven which illustrate respectively the development of
auditing techniques an d the
tendency of future development of auditing. The book is equipped
with subs tance by which I'm dazzled as if I were walking in the
mountain where there are so many things for my
eyes to take in. In the process of writing the book, t he author
established contacts with dozens of relevant agencies, exchanged
views with the auditing experts in many countries
and accumulated huge amount of info rmation and pictures from
Britain, Japan, the Soviet Union, West Germany, France , Spain,
Portugel, USA and Arab countries. Therefore, It deserves to be
called a nother great book by Prof.Wen shuo after long years of
painstaking efforts. It i s the first history book of auditing I
have ever seen worldwide which makes a sy s tematic and
comprehensive introducting of the evolution process of state
auditin g, internal auditing and auditing by CPA.
This demonstrating the development of th e theory and work of
auditing in China with the improvement of its economic
work following the policy of reform and opening
to the outside world. Moreover, we are gratifying
to see that some of our countrymen have gained world claim
in this respect.
There is no limit to knowledge. I believe that Prof. Wen shuo will strive for ne w achievements.
There is no limit to knowledge. I believe that Prof. Wen shuo will strive for ne w achievements.
by Prof. Yang
Shizhan；March 29,1990，Wuhan
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