Why won't my auditor also handle other work for my company?
Why can't the same firm that audits my accounts also do my bookkeeping?
Auditor independence isn't a box a firm ticks on paper — it's what gives an audit opinion its value in the first place. An auditor needs to be independent both in fact and in appearance, meaning no financial interest or personal relationship with the company or its owners. UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2023, which regulates the audit and accounting professions, explicitly prohibits an auditor from having "any transaction or interest" with a client or its related parties — including board members, executives, and companies in which they hold 30% or more of the capital. The law also bars an auditor from joining a client company's management within two years of providing services to it.
The reason this actually matters, beyond being a legal requirement: if the same firm that handles your bookkeeping also signs the audit opinion on your financial statements, it is effectively reviewing its own work — a self-review threat that undermines the report's value to any third party relying on it, whether a bank assessing a financing request or an investor reviewing your numbers before a decision.
The law does allow accounting firms to offer additional services such as internal audit or financial advisory, but within professional standards approved by the Ministry — not without limits. The clearest line is preparing the financial statements themselves: a firm that prepares your financial statements generally should not be the one auditing them, since it would be reviewing figures it built itself.
A related principle supports independence over the longer term, particularly for larger or listed entities: rotating the audit partner or the firm itself periodically, to prevent the kind of over-familiarity that can build up between an auditor and management over the years, and to keep a fresh, unbiased perspective on the file. At RASEEKH, we keep this separation clear with our clients from the outset, so that any audit or review report we deliver carries its full weight with whoever needs to rely on it.