Auditing plays a vital role in business, government and the economy. The key value of auditing lies in its ability to provide independent assurance regarding the integrity and fairness of financial information produced by companies and other entities. An auditor has a legal duty to report to the members on the financial statements of the company for an accounting period and on the accounting records relating to those financial statements (section 308). Auditors are required to provide an audit report to the members (i.e. voting shareholders) of the company regarding the audit of the financial statements. The auditor must express an opinion on the compliance of the financial statements with the Companies Act, accounting standards (art. 296) and give a true and fair view (art. 297). The going concern modification of the audit report is an appropriate framework for investigating the behavior of audit reports. First, it is important that auditors' reports play a critical role in alerting market participants to a company's ability to continue as a going concern (DeFond et al. 2002; Geiger et al... 20...