Bangladesh’s audit imbalance

Numbers rarely lie, even when Trump is in the room. But they do have a habit of whispering truths our profession would rather not discuss over coffee. Bangladesh’s latest audit statistics are doing exactly that.

As per the 2024-25 audit data, out of 258 audit firms, the top 50 firms conduct 64 percent of all statutory audits, while the top 100 firms perform 87 percent. Meanwhile, the bottom 100 firms carry out only 3 percent. In plain language, a small group of firms is playing almost the whole match while a large part of the profession is sitting on the bench.

The imbalance becomes sharper when we look at partner workload. On average, each partner signs off on 71 audits a year. In the top tier, that rises to over 130 audits per partner, and in extreme cases, a partner has signed 388 audits in a single year. At the other end, some partners sign only one audit annually. These numbers pose a simple question: when a partner has hundreds of audits to approve, how much of the audit is actually being supervised, and how much is simply being signed?

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Then there is what this data does not capture. These figures cover statutory audits only. They do not include compliance audits required by regulators, such as the National Board of Revenue, or the consulting and advisory work that many of these firms also do. If we add those engagements, the workload in some firms would likely multiply, making the current picture look less like “busy season” and more like a year-round traffic jam.

And we should be honest about how the machine runs. In many large firms, a significant portion of audit fieldwork is performed by students and junior trainees, while partners sign off. Training is necessary and healthy. But when one partner is linked to hundreds of engagements, the risk is obvious: the audit becomes an exercise in logistics rather than judgement. Quality, like biryani, does not improve when you try to cook it for a thousand guests in one pot. This explains the current mess in audit practices.

The structure also creates a self-reinforcing cycle. Big firms attract the best students. That strengthens big firms further. Smaller firms struggle to hire and gradually fall behind. Years ago, there was a cap on the number of students per partner, but it was graciously extended. The outcome is predictable: big firms become bigger, weak firms become weaker, and the profession becomes more concentrated with every passing year.

The long-term damage is not only market imbalance. It is career discouragement. Young professionals look at the landscape and conclude that building an independent practice is a heroic dream with a poor return. Many choose corporate jobs instead. This is happening in a country that already faces a shortage of statutory auditors, while the same limited pool also dominates audits and compliance work in other areas.

Globally, regulators typically focus less on counting audits and more on audit quality. Still, some countries impose caps where capacity constraints demand it. India, for example, limits partners to 20 company audits and 60 tax audits annually. Bangladesh largely relies on process-based oversight. In a high-concentration market, that may not be enough to prevent a sign-off culture.

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Reform needs coordinated action. ICAB should restore discipline in training capacity and engagement distribution so the profession grows beyond a few firms; the FRC should tighten quality inspections for public interest and high risk audits and set enforceable workload thresholds where needed; and the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Commerce should expand the assurance ecosystem by enabling other qualified professional accountants to undertake non statutory audits and regulatory compliance work, while also making tax audit, cost and management audit mandatory for large corporates.

Audit is not paperwork. It is public trust. When trust is signed faster than it is examined, governance weakens, corruption finds oxygen, and the economy becomes fragile. Bangladesh does not need more audit reports. It needs more real audits.

The writer is the founder of BuildCon Consultancies Ltd