Procurement auditor claims custody of working papers and therefore the working papers are property of the auditor.
Confidentiality of working papers: Information should not be disclosed to 3rd parties without consent of auditee unless required by law. The auditor should not equally use the information acquired for personal gain or advantage or for the benefit of a 3rd party.
Audit Evidence (ISA 500)
Audit evidence is governed by ISA 500. It is defined as any information obtained by the auditor that is used to form an opinion of the financial statements that are the subject work. It can also be any information collected by the auditor in the course of his examination of the books of accounts of an entity or an organization which will be used as the basis of expressing opinions in the financial statements.
ISA 500 requires auditors to obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence to be used in expressing a conclusion on the financial statements. Procurement Audit evidence is information obtained by the auditor and used as a basis for expressions, conclusions and recommendation of procurement processes and systems of a procurement entity in the procurement audit report.
Purpose of Audit Evidence
Audit documentation ―working papers‖ consists of the auditing procedures applied evidence obtained and conclusions reached in an audit engagement. Audit documentation is the auditor‘s evidence that the audit conforms to acceptable audit standards and is subject to review by a court of law or regulatory agency.
Sufficiency of audit evidence
Sufficiency is the measure of quantity or amount of audit evidence. It is influenced by the following:
1. Risk assessment – If risk is too high, auditor should collect more evidence.
2. Nature of Procurement and internal control system – If the system is strong, less evidence should be collected.
3. Materiality of items being examined – Material items like stock, stores and procurement contracts requires the auditor to collect a lot of evidence.
4. Experience gained in prior years audit work.
5. Auditor‘s knowledge of the auditee business and industry.
6. Possible management bias.
7. Experience as to the reliability of the management, staff and procurement records.
Appropriateness of audit evidence
This is the quality of the audit evidence.
It depends on source of evidence and circumstances under which it is obtained.
