Lincoln's Control Environment

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When conducting an audit, professional standard must require auditors to consider the clients control environment. According to (www.aicpa.org) professional standards is the comprehensive source of auditing and attestation pronouncements issued by the AICPA, along with the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and Bylaws .The control environment refers to the overall tone of an organization as it relates to issues such as financial checks and balances. The tone reflects the attitude, awareness, and actions of the board of directors, management, and owners who influence the control consciousness of its people.
There were some weaknesses that were evident in Lincoln’s control environment. One of the potential risks within the company was that when …show more content…

When dealing with a nonrecourse note, if the borrower of the note decides to default with the payments, the issuer of the note can seize the collateral but cannot seek out the borrower for any further compensation. If the collateral does not cover the amount of the default the issue of the note cannot go after the borrower. A recourse note is a debt that allows the lender to collect from the borrower and the borrower assets in the case of default as opposed to foreclosing on a particular property or asset as with a home loan or auto loan. In the case of Lincoln Savings, the company received nonrecourse notes rather than recourse notes, one of the reasons why they chose to receive nonrecourse notes rather than the recourse notes as payment or partial payment on many of the properties sold was because they wanted to inflate earnings. Lincoln wanted to show a gain on their books so that their financial would appear better. Since Lincoln accepted the nonrecourse notes as a form of payment for the properties that were sold, it significantly weakened the quality of the collateral backing its loan and it’s ability to recover should the loan holders …show more content…

This allowed Lincoln to show a large amount of paper gain in their books, which would eventually allow them to improve their financial statements. The professions auditing standards identify the principal “management assertions” that underline a set of financial statements. Some of the key assertions that Arthur Young, the auditor should have attempted to substantiate for the Hidden Valley transition are completeness, which is when the auditor should have realized if the transactions are completes and have they been correctly reported. Another assertion is the cutoff which means has the transactions been recorded in the correct time period. Another assertion that should have been used is accuracy, which means was the transitions recorded properly. Some procedures that the auditor should have done is to examine the Hidden Valley transaction and should have questioned it more. One of the questions they should have asked was if they buyer was qualified enough for this transaction. The auditors should have also questioned the size and amount of this transaction. Another procedure the auditor should have done to ensure this transaction was correct was to do sample testing. Some evidence that the auditors should have collected is the names of all the professionals that were involved within this transaction such as any advisors, or

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