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Conclusion on auditors independence
Literature review on role of internal control in risk management
Conclusion on auditors independence
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1.0 Introduction
The main objective of this report is to discuss about the effectiveness of Audit Committee in the private sector. Audit Committee, Remuneration Committee, and Nomination Committee are commonly seen in an organization which is appointed by The Board of Directors (BOD). BOD is a group or individuals that are nominated members who mutually manage the activities of an organization. The BOD’s power and authority is delegated by shareholder by whom the BOD decision making can be made on behalf of shareholder. BOD establishes corporate objectives management related comprehensive policies and to make decisions on significant company issues. As such, it is essential to have a BOD in an organization. However, Audit Committee is a key
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One of the responsibilities of Audit Committee in corporate governance is to ensure the quality of the company’s financial reporting. By doing so, Audit Committee should review significant financial reporting issues and judgment so as to ensure the integrity of the financial statements of the company and any formal announcements relating to the company’s financial performance. Besides, they have to review the financial statements and disclosures of notes in the financial statement, and annual and provisional remunerations news announcements before they are publicly disclosed. Additionally, the Audit Committee should review arrangements by which staff if the company may, in confidence, raise concerns about possible irregularity in matters of financial reporting or other matters to detect fraud. The Audit Committee objective is to ensure that arrangements are in place for the independent investigation of such matters for appropriate follow up action. Badolato et al. (2014) (BDE) examine the effectiveness of Audit Committee financial …show more content…
In the annual report, the BOD will disclose the names of the members of Audit Committee and details of the Committee’s activities in the company’s annual report. The disclosure of the existence, function and performance of the Audit Committee to shareholders is an important element of transparency and good corporate governance practice.
Furthermore, the Committee reviews the description of the main features of the internal control and risk management systems pertaining to the financial reporting process, monitors the statutory audit of the financial statements and consolidated financial statements, evaluates the independence of the statutory audit firm, and prepares the proposal for resolution on the election of the auditor.
In respect of other public disclosures of information that is extracted or derived from the financial statements, the audit committee must be satisfied that management has put appropriate procedures into place for reviewing such information, and the audit committee is required to assess the of those procedures on a periodic basis.
Disclosure of the existence, function and performance of the Audit Committee
When it comes to the audit objectives, the public and the auditing profession maintain varying expectations. The public expects the prevention of fraud to be the auditor’s responsibility. However, the auditors believe that they are responsible for fraud detection, but not obliged to find all of it. In addition, the public views the fraud by the characteristics displayed by management and employees. For example, WoolEx Mills’ management wanted to exude a prevailing financial position and to uphold reputations. By committing financial statement fraud, it made the company look successful even though Sales and cash flows were decreasing. The public would view these particular characteristics as pressures to why the company committed fraud. Greed, recognition, and influences also impacted the public’s view of Wool Ex Mills’ fraud scheme. The CEO used authority to influence employees to take part in the fraud scheme. The public would see that the CEO utilized power to manipulate shareholders, which impacted their trust with WoolEx Mills (Cohen, Ding, Lesage, & Stolowy 2015) (Krishnan & Shah
But the stakeholders play a very important role in preventing and deterring fraud. Stakeholders includes customers, suppliers, employees, the community and the government. Each play an important role since they have an interest in the integrity of financial reports of the publicly-traded company. Employees have a vested interest in the company’s success and they have a responsibility to protect their interest. Their roles may start from the bottom but they are key players in the company. To help deter or prevent financial statement fraud, the employee must report financial reporting fraud if it is detected. This can be done by way of a vigorous whistleblower program of some other tip line provided by the company. The community and its members, including the news media, can play a regulator role by confirming that the company is a good citizen with fair business practices. Shareholders should make sure that any company in which they’d like to invest is in compliance with standards of oversight and ethics. Investors need to play and active role also. They should be actively involved by monitoring the companies in which they invest. They should attend shareholder’s meeting regularly to discuss concerns and check the books of the company. This will allow them to stay current with what is going on within the company. Shareholders should always remain vigilant and make
The purpose of the internal audit is to protect Costco 's assets through evaluating the acceptability and efficiency of internal controls; recognizing areas of possible risk, revenue improvement and/or cost reductions; and making sure transactions are authorized, completed, and logged as proposed. The internal auditors are accountable for guiding audits of all Costco’s local and global activities, its affiliates, and other entities Costco conducts business with as deemed necessary by management.
The audit committee a part of the board of directors plays an important role in preventing fraud. They are directly responsible for overseeing the work of any public accounting firm, such as PwC, employed by the company. They also must preapprove all audit services provided by the auditors.
The oversight responsibilities of the board, the CAE lacking of expertise or broad understanding of financial controls and responsibilities, and the understaffed internal audit functions lacking of independence and direct access to the board of directors contributed to the absence of internal controls. To begin with, the board should be retrained to achieve financial literacy to review financial reporting. Other than attending formal meetings, the board of directors should be more involved with the management. For the Audit Committee, the two members who were recruited as acquaintances to Brennahan need be replaced with experts who are more sufficiently knowledgeable about accounting rules beyond merely “financially literate”. Furthermore, the internal audit functions need to expand with different expertise commensurate with the expanded activities of the organization, testing financial reporting rather than internal controls from an operational perspective. The CAE should be more independent and proactive to execute audit plans, instead of following orders from the CFO, and initiate a direct and efficient communication between internal audit and audit
The directors need to be able to view the financial performance of the group in order to make relevant and informed decisions. In order to obtain this information the correct procedures, as mentioned, must be followed to ensure that assets are not overstated and liabilities
This report gives the brief overview of the concept of corporate governance, its evolution and its significance in the corporate sector. The report highlights various key issues and concerns that are faced by the organizations while effectively implementing and promoting Corporate Governance.
For external stakeholders and decision makers, reviewing the components of financial statements are important in determining the situation at the company.
Conflict of interest is a big problem between Enron and its auditing firms. It is believes that Enron’s auditors was hide many information and external auditors never aware or hide the losses in Enron. From audit committees to transparency committees would increase the likelihood that a firm’s key business ricks are transparent to investors (Healy & Palepu 2003, p. 21). Besides, a transparency committee can also help with internal auditor appreciate its primary responsibility lies with the board, not for personal interest and pleasing the leader.
Organizations that only have top management as the board members are more susceptible to accounting malpractices. Members of the board should preferably own shares in the company to ensure diligence when it comes to the interests of the company. Apart from the Board of Governors, there should also be an audit committee in place to oversee the financial dealings of the bank. Members of the board and the audit committee should have basic financial knowledge. Some of the members should also be experts in finances so that they can detect any anomaly that may take place in terms of financial reporting. An overhaul of the regulatory framework is required to empower authorities to intervene immediately, and make improvements. New technology is required. Manual antiquated processes should be eliminated because this causes greater human error and poor
Audit is a process to evaluate and review the accounts and financial statement objectively. We can divide it into internal auditors and external auditors. Internal auditors have a inner knowledge of business process. Auditor has access to the much confidential information and all levels of management. But they may lose their judgement and they are not acceptable by the shareholder. “The overall objective of the external auditors is to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to report on the financial statements in acco...
...e financial reports and statements are correct. This auditing will be conducted by auditing department of the organization, even may be done by an independent auditor who is not part of the organization, and sometimes public officials are elected. In case of unmatched consequences the organization need to give explanation on the misrepresentation of wrong statements. Auditors purpose is then to ensure that the misrepresentations are corrected, then maintain accurate, reliable financial documents and statements.
Overall, the company is having ineffective controls regarding different departments and in the whole organization. An effective internal audit department should be established within the organization which should test the effectiveness of these controls on regular basis and make it sure that all controls are working effectively and efficiently with the different departments of the organization. Also the Internal auditor should implement the most effective processes and measures to prevent and detect the fraud, corruption and non compliance with the laws and regulations in the organization. Establishment of internal audit committee would be helpful in this regard which comprises of executive and non executive directors.
The fundamental duty of an external financial auditor is to form and express an opinion on whether the reporting entity’s financial statements are prepared in accordance with the relevant financial reporting framework. In discharging this duty, the auditor must exercise “reasonable skill, care and caution” (Lopes, J. in Kingston Cotton Mill Co 1896) as reflected in current legal and professional requirements.
Auditing has been the backbone of the complicated business world and has always changed with the times. As the business world grew strong, auditors’ roles grew more important. The auditors’ job became more difficult as the accounting principles changed. It also became easier with the use of internal controls, which introduced the need for testing, not a complete audit. Scandals and stock market crashes made auditors aware of deficiencies in auditing, and the auditing community was always quick to fix those deficiencies. Computers played an important role of changing the way audits were performed and also brought along some difficulties.