ON THE AUDIT OF FAIR VALUE MEASUREMENTS

Jatinder P. Singh and Prince Doliya

Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India

In this article, the hypotheses „whether the auditor’s functional domain, his approach, methodology and responsibilities are undergoing a metamorphosis with the adoption of Fair Value Accounting (hereinafter the „FVA”) and whether his/her role is moving away from the mechanized attester of tangible evidence to the one exercising a substantively judgmental function in a holistic assessment of the values ascribed to be fair by the entity’s management” are tested. These hypotheses are tested on the basis of an analysis of the statutory provisions, the pronouncements of accounting and other regulatory bodies and accounting norms and theories. After setting forth the research objectives and the hypotheses, the necessity of the FVA is reviewed and the underlying philosophy is analyzed. Impediments in performing audits of fair-value-based measurements are then identified and the US auditing standards and their international counterparts are touched upon. Finally, some safeguards and precautions for the auditor in an audit of fair-value measurements are presented.

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting (FVA), procedures for Fair Value Measurements (FVMs), fair value estimates, impediments to an audit of FVMs, the audit standards and pronouncements on fair value auditing

JEL Classification: M41, M42

Economic Horizons, 2015, Vol. 17, No 1, pp. 59-69; Published online 21 April 2015; doi:10.5937/ekonhor1501061S
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