There is a small band of lazy journalists and bloggers who have stumbled across a winning formula (for them, at least): to catalogue every single instance of lax or sub-standard work performed by the Big 4 audit firms and then to sew it into a grand conspiracy about how these firms are systematically attempting to undermine the lives of ordinary people while enriching themselves. You know who these people are.

I have long argued that this style of journalism is lazy and unacceptable, because it fails to take account of the work they perform to a satisfactory level or higher. Such work is almost always performed in private; generally speaking, the only time we ever get to see what auditors have done is when they screw it up.

So there's some bad news for the sloppy crew today:

OLYMPUS changed its auditor because of an argument about accounting for its purchased businesses, rather than it reaching the end of its contractual obligation, according to reports.

The camera-maker, which has seen its share price slump after its new chief executive revealed concerns over advisory payments related to acquisitions, replaced auditor KPMG with Ernst & Young in 2009.

The auditor swap took place because of a re-tendering process following the end of KPMG's contract, Olympus had stated. However, Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, the Olympus chief at the time, allegedly told management there was a disagreement with KPMG over its accounting for goodwill and its acquisition of UK business Gyrus, reported Reuters.

This simply does not fit their narrative. In standing up to Olympus, even apparently at the cost of the ongoing engagement, KPMG's behaviour confounds the Big 4's critics. Their simplistic, naive reporting, from which they make their (in some cases substantial) livelihoods, trivialises a complex situation and gravely insults the many thousands of honest hard-working Big 4 staffers around the globe. In order to provide a credible analysis of the Big 4, it's necessary to account for their quality work as well as their inadequate work. It's time for Frannie, Ritchie, Ian and Prem to grow up, and the Olympus story provides them with a good opportunity to do it.

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Filed under: Auditing, Ethics with tags accountancy age, big 4, francine mckenna, ian fraser, idiots, kpmg, olympus, prem sikka, richard murphy