The first thing to do is to buy into this ideal.  Mr. Hamill says, “I honestly believe that too many audits are not designed or intended to achieve audit excellence, or even audit adequacy.”  He explains that auditors can become immersed in the "business" of making money, and he hopes to remind practitioners that they are professionals—with the commitment to providing client service excellence and recognizing the need for absolute integrity.

The Foundation is designed to communicate the need and opportunities for audit service excellence, together with examples, procedures and practices that achieve such a superior distinction.  The website for the Foundation for Audit Excellence provides some probing questions as it stretches readers to high ideals.

When asked whether this Foundation will be in competition with the AICPA Center for Audit Quality, Hamill’s response is that the Foundation will go beyond the "comfort" and "inertia" zones of both the Center for Audit Quality and the AICPA.  An example of this is the issue of external auditor independence.  The Foundation for Audit Quality will aggressively pursue the resolution of this long-standing impediment to service excellence that arises from the way that audits are funded and controlled.  The Foundation intends to push for proactive consideration by Congress and the Obama administration to change this failed system.  In Hamill’s view it is impossible to provide excellent audit service with this current system that impairs realistic independence.

Hamill also points out that the foundation hopes to assist audit committees to perform their tasks more effectively and more efficiently.  For example, an audit committee could ask the following of the audit service provider:

• What will you do to improve your audit service from the past?
• The website for the American Institute of CPAs has guidance and tools designed for audit committees ("Audit Committee Effectiveness Center"). Have you reviewed the website in this regard? Do you intend to work with the Audit Committee to use this information for process evaluation and improvement?
• In what ways may your audit service be viewed as being excellent?

These questions can promote important discussions between the Audit Committee and the audit service provider.  The foundation can also assist the Audit Committee in these discussions and with the evaluation of the service provider's responses.  He adds, “An audit service provider could also address these matters with their customer without having to be asked, as a function of a commitment to excellence.”

Striving for the ideal audit does not imply that the audit firm must give up profit.  Responding to the needs of investors and creditors enhances their effectiveness and increases the efficiency of the economy.  Investors and creditors will reward those who make them better off.  Hamill believes that this will “equate to the paramount need for monetary success.”

I think the foundation is raising good policy issues that we need to think about as we consider how to improve the auditing profession.  I wish Hamill and the foundation best wishes as they tackle some important questions.