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The origin of the profession of auditing can be traced back to a lack of trust between agents and principals. This lack of trust arose from the difference of interest of both parties. The principals and the agent's goal has been maximization of value for themselves. The principals were unable to monitor all the actions of the agents. One of the reasons to use agents was to ensure that the principals did not have to monitor all the actions themselves. In order to ensure goal congruence of the agents, the principals used all kind of tools to monitor the agent's actions. One of these tools became the use of an auditor for auditing the financial statements of the company supervised by the agent. The auditor was paid by the principal and acted in the interest of the principal (Verhaar, 2010).
About the author
Johnson Kolawole Olowookere is Chartered Accountant. He is a lecturer in the Department of Management and Accounting, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria. He holds B.Sc.(Hons) and M.Sc. degree both in Accounting. Also,an MBA and M.Phil. Degree in Business Administration.He is presently a Doctoral candidate in Accounting.
