Sectoral Analysis in External Audit: Role, Objectives, Basic Terminology

Abstract

Achieving the objective of external audit depends primarily on the quality of the planning stage, where sectoral analysis plays a decisive role. It enables the rational planning of audit activities, but only with adequate understanding of the structure of the analyzed economic system and its components. The article reveals the essence and interrelations of the constituent elements of the national economy’s structure as an integral economic system, as well as new approaches to their structuring. Based on an analysis of international thematic sources, the author proposes a concept of economic structure, considering the role of sectoral analysis in external audit; provides a substantive description of the constituent elements of the national economy’s structure from the perspective of different approaches and their use in regulations and official documents. Based on a review of international thematic sources, a definition of the concept “economic structure” is proposed, considering the role of sectoral analysis in external audit. A substantive description of the constituent elements of the national economy’s structure is provided, from the point of view of different approaches applied in regulatory legal acts and official documents. Using the methods of formal dialectical logic and an analysis of the views of domestic and international scholars on the subject matter, the author presents her vision of the essence of the basic categories for sectoral analysis. To establish the relationships between these categories, methods of induction, deduction, and scientific abstraction were employed. A critical analysis of existing approaches to sectoral structuring of the national economy in domestic and foreign scientific literature was carried out, to outline their practical significance for sectoral analysis. Further development of sectoral analysis in external audit and the formation of its categorical apparatus should ensure compliance with the risk-oriented approach to planning the activities of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine, and enhance the efficiency of use of its audit resources.