Margreeth Kloppenburg
Welcome! Coming to the Netherlands to work in the audit sector leads to many questions upfront. In this publication, we aim to help you a bit by giving some idea of what it is like to live and work among the Dutch and other auditors from abroad: not too formal, yet informative, and so, we hope, in a welcoming tone of voice. Obviously, this is because we are happy to have you here. We have gathered interesting data about the sector, added some historical back ground of the development of the profession, and explored the experiences of your future colleagues who have already survived the transition to this wet little piece of land reclaimed from the sea. We have also translated some essays by notable authors and academics, which appeared in a book that we published in 2017. This book was about the professional honour of the chartered accountant. We hope it will give you some insight into what kind of discussions are going on in the Netherlands. All these contributions should add up to a warm and informed start of your stay here. As for the tantalising idea in the title of this first introductory contribution, whether there is a Dutch way of performing audits, experts on the matter would say quite decisively: there definitely used to be one! And it certainly had its influence on the global standardisation of auditing protocols that took place during the 1980s. It also means that the elements that made it typically Dutch have since become incor porated into these global principles and may not be that specific or recognisable anymore. Of course, it’s an undeniable truth that when you come to the Netherlands to work in the audit sector, you will sometimes find yourself ‘lost in translation’. In this introduction, we aim to explain what this past influence was and we will try to throw some light on what is meant by professional honour and the concept of discretionary space as the very essence of good professionalism. We will also explain how the phrase ‘professional honour’ can be traced back to Napoleon’s time, when he ruled this country through his brother. We think it will be helpful when reading the other contributions.
so, is there a dutch way of performing audits?
So, is there a Dutch way of performing audits?
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