The effect of independent auditor's professional skepticism on auditing quality in the context of auditing standards and a research

Information flow for accounting between interest groups and businesses is pro-vided by the accounting process. The extraordinary growth and diversification of the activities of businesses has increased the number of interest groups that are interested in these activities. As a result of this, businesses' financial positions and their operating results have made potential investors, the state, lenders, employees, trade unions, busi-ness associates as well as the whole society except for shareholders be interested. The information produced by accounting is presented through financial statements to rele-vant persons. Interest groups within and outside the businesses need these financial statements for making their decisions regarding the businesses. The precision for making decisions based on financial statements depend on the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in these financial statements. It is almost impossible for interest groups to obtain the information they need from its source. Information that cannot be obtained from its source is likely to contain errors and irregularities. The probability of financial statements involving errors or ir-regularities intentionally or unintentionally makes it difficult for interest groups to make decisions based on these tables. An investigation into the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in the financial statements will enhance the authenticity and ob-jectivity of the decisions to be made based on these tables. Independent audit under-takes a very important function in determining the reliability and accuracy of financial and non-financial information from which interest groups benefit in the process of deci-sion making. Because of the socio-economic importance of the task that the independent audit has undertaken, the audit activity must be carried out at a certain quality level. Audit quality means that the supervised business submits its financial statements, its financial position and its operating results in accordance with the Turkish Accounting Standards and that it supports this with sufficient number of audit evidence and objective judg-ments. In other words, an audit activity carried out and completed in accordance with the Generally Accepted Auditing Standards can be called a quality auditing. Independ-ent audit firms must establish a quality control system within the firm and ensure that the system is implemented smoothly so that they can continuously improve the quality level while supervising and fulfill their responsibilities to the supervised businesses and interest groups. Auditing is the act of collecting sufficient and adequate quality evidence and the activity of evaluating this evidence. In the course of the implementation of the audit plan, auditors collect audit evidence by using specific audit techniques. By evaluating the evidence collected, reliability of the information contained in the financial state-ments is questioned. Professional skepticism is an attitude that critically evaluates the audit evidence with a questioning mind and it needs to be vigilant against the circum-stances that may lead to false declaration stemming from irregularity or error of financial statements. Auditors may not obtain sufficient and appropriate evidence to support their views unless they act in accordance with the principle of professional skepticism; they may have difficulty describing the actions that may lead to financial statements to contain incorrect information or explaining them in a reasonable way. The concept of professional skepticism will have a direct impact on the quality of audit since audit qual-ity means the reliability of the conclusion reached at the end of the audit activity. In the first part of the study, the concepts of audit, independent audit and inde-pendent auditor have been explained separately. In the second part of the study, the theoretical knowledge about international auditing standards and concepts of profes-sional skepticism has been mentioned and the factors affecting professional skepticism have been discussed. In the third part of the study quality, independent auditing quality, criteria for ensuring independent auditing quality, quality control in independent audit-ing, and national and international regulations with regard to quality control in inde-pendent auditing have been examined. In the fourth part of the study, the effect of the concept of professional skepticism on audit quality has been discussed by analyzing the questionnaire data. The study ends with recommendations and conclusion.