The IAPC's International Auditing Guidelines and its Controversial IAG 13 on the Auditor's Report

This paper is a historical account of the founding, organization and early operation of the International Auditing Practices Committee (IAPC), which was one of the committees of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), from 1978 to 1991. It examines the debates and disagreements attending the most controversial of the IAPC’s 29 International Auditing Guidelines (IAGs), dealing with the auditor’s report on financial statements, issued in 1983. It also reviews IFAC’s 1987 survey of compliance with the IAGs by its member countries around the world and the IAPC’s decision in 1991 to change Guidelines to Standards