Why publicly traded companies are required (from government) to pay for the auditor fees?

It's perfectly reasonable to require the companies to audit their financial statements, but why do companies have to pay for the auditing fees? Why doesn't the government pay for it? If i have a large enough business, why should I spend money on something that has no value to me (I know that investors would go away from the stock and hence there is some value, but assuming that investors believe the management team would not fake the financials, why the government wants the business to spend on auditing)?
Answers

Richard

The audit is done for the benefit of the shareholders to ensure that the company is providing a legitimate picture of its financial condition.

nt

They don't HAVE to. They want to because it gives the investment community more confidence in their numbers.

mindcrime828

"...assuming that investors believe the management team would not fake the financials..." Guess you've never heard about Enron or WorldCom? Two major cases of fraud that led to Congress passing the Sarbanes-Oxley act? Why would the government pay for an annual audit? A corporation decides on it's own that it wants to be publicly traded, have investors or borrow from a bank. Those are the main stakeholders that would require an audit. A company that only uses the owners investment and reinvested funds technically does not require to be have an audit completed.