Auditors’ Opinion: The Paradox of “True and Fair View” of Financial Statements

Abstract

The appropriateness of the age-old accounting phrase “true and fair view” has been questioned in recent times. This stems from the irreconcilable corporate failures of entities whose financial statements had been earlier adjudged, by audit opinion, as being “true and fair”. In the light of the increasing doubts about the truism of financial statements, the objective of this study is to examine how true and fair financial statements are, and propose an alternative concept for use in expressing audit opinion on financial statements. The desk-based approach supplemented with information from some accounting practitioners, is used and the method of analysis is explanatory in nature. The issues highlighted in the discourse on the “true and fair view” concept corroborate the opinion of previous empirical studies that it is virtually and currently unrealistic to describe financial statements as being “true”. It is thus recommended that the phrase should rather be ‘’that the financial statements present fairly the state of the affairs of the organization’’.