Comparative Auditing Standards.

The article presents a comparison of the standards that govern the three principal classes of auditors in the U.S. namely, the internal auditor, the governmental auditor and the external or independent auditor. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) in 1939 released the document entitled "Extensions of Auditing Procedure," the first official pronouncement in a series known today as generally accepted auditing standards for external auditors. The Comptroller General of the U.S. broke the AICPA monopoly on written auditing standards with the publication in 1972 of the General Accounting Office "Standards for Audit of Governmental Organizations, Programs, Activities and Functions," more popularly known as the yellow book. In 1978, internal auditors released the third set of professional auditing standards entitled "Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing."