I do not think that audits are valid at all when the company requiring the audit is the same company publishing the audit.

It would make much more sense if a third party required the audit and then forcibly performed the audit for the benefit of third parties.

But who would pay for that?

That is a business model that has yet to surface.

What is needed is a customer swarm funded auditing agency that wont send money to a company without first allowing a full audit independent of the company in question.

It would be a choke point for funding. Something like this could do well, but in normal finance it would probably find little takers since the entire system is now fully F***** up.