In 1983 the State Council of China announced environmental protection as one of the two basic state policies (with the other being family planning) of China, and emphasized that environmental issues were as urgent as population problems (Kun-min Zhang and Zong-guo Wen 2007).
Given these evidences; conducting an environmental audit is no longer an option but a sound precaution and a proactive measure in today's heavily regulated environment. A number of arguments have addressed the need for widening the scope of the financial auditing profession to encapsulate environmental issues. The same have been supported by Robert Dixon et al 2004.
2 Consideration of
Environmental Matters in the Audit of Financial Statements
IAPS 1010 emphasized that the magnitude of environmental matter differs from one firm to another and its effect in financial statements also differs. Thus, the magnitude and effect of environmental matters have great impact to financial reports of some entities. Arising from such matters is a potential risk of material misstatement (including inadequate disclosure) in the financial report and when this happened the auditor is required to give consideration to environmental matters in the audit of the financial report.
A typical sequence of the audit process is as follows. Having acquired sufficient knowledge of the audit environment, the auditor assesses the risk of a material misstatement in the financial statement. This assessment includes consideration of environmental laws and regulations that may pertain to the entity. It also provides a basis for the auditor to assess the magnitude of environmental matters for the company and then to decide whether there is a need to pay more attention to them in the course of the audit of the financial statement. This sequence has been clearly provided in the practical assistance given by IAPS 1010 to auditors.
Currently Accountants and financial auditors are involved to make sure that the information of environmental matters are properly given consideration in both process
Environmental Audit — The Role of Financial Auditor in Effective Implementation of Environmental Protection and suistainable development in China
3 Financial Auditor and Environmental Audit 3.1 Argument in favor of
using financial auditors
Those who are in favor of using financial auditors in effective implementing of environmental audit argued that the financial auditors are competent and capable of doing environment audit and they should apply scientific expertise according to their professional qualifications the same way as they normally apply to auditing of other field. ICAEW, (1992, p.106) indicates that the environment is not different from any other specialist areas such as property valuation or interpretation of legal agreements. The environment is one area which can be inte-grated into the audit process by involve discussion with environmental specialists. Furthermore, ICAEW (1992, p. 108) states that it is more likely that a relevant physical scientist or engineer would be the appropriate person to provide such verification because of the technical of such disclosure. Hence therefore the financial auditors in this situation have a broad field in which to work, while using the specialist to cover technical problems B, Dixon 2004, Bebbington, Gray, Thomson &Walterws, 1994; Black, 1998; Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA), 1992 and 1997; Collison, 1996; Collison& Gray, 1997; Collison&Slomp, 2000; Collison et al., 1996; Federation des Experts Comptables Europeans (FEE), 1993; Gray &Symon, 1992; Greeno, Hedestrom, &Diberto, 1989; Huizing& Dekker, 1992; ICAEW, 1992,2000; IFAC, 1995; Power, 1997). ICAEW (1992) argued that companies tend to trust the financial auditors or CPAs more than any other specialists to ask them advice in business situations. The same have supported by Grecn, &Zimmerer, (1995) .
FEE (1993), also pointed out that the financial auditor has a long standing tradition of investigating and evaluating systems as well as reporting well to the findings. Collison et al. (1996) argue that on the basis of evidence from European countries the
potential role for financial auditing, related to environmental audits, clearly exists. ICAEW (1992, p. 3) points out that "independent audit can provide important assurance on the reliability of environmental disclosure.
The audit work required to give an opinion on published environmental reports in that case it will be similar in nature to that performed in auditing financial statements and in verifying information contained in. CICA (1992), Power (1997) seeks to determine the relationship between financial and environmental audits and evaluate the expertise of accountants and argues that accountants have begun to compete for work in the environmental auditing field, Collison et al. (1996) conducted a survey concerning financial auditors' responses to environmental issues; the results indicate that there is a majority desire for guidance from professional accountancy bodies related to environmental matters and also majority view that many auditors have potentially useful role to play in attesting environmental reports. Furthermore, accountants and financial auditors are now excel well in performing environmental audit and they managed to build confidence to public what they only need is to improve their work further and expand their knowledge of environmental issues CICA (1997).