Question

Throughout the audit process, the internal auditors gather facts. They are supported by written documents or verbal statements. They are called evidence, work papers, supporting documents, or in general, documentations…etc.

In the real world, there is no rule regarding the amount of evidence that the auditor should or must collect. In writing the audit report, unlike the external auditor, there is no pre-set template. The internal auditor is not required to follow a specific format. Pictures, graphs, and tables, just to name a few, are allowed in internal audit reports but not in external audit reports. All these are subject to the individual company policy and internal audit’s philosophy and art. Sampling technique is also used; however most of the auditors use judgmental sampling more than statistical sampling.

Given the above stated statements, a number of auditors argued that;

1. If the auditee accepted the findings and recognized them, why internal auditors should waste their time documenting the audit findings and propose corrective actions? This is a waste of paper and needless cost of storing them.
2. There is no need to write an audit report. A verbal presentation to top management at the end of the audit process will suffice.
3. The internal audit report should be considered a public information and available to the public upon request.

Answer 1

As per SA 230 Auditor should keep the working paper because audit working paper acts as an evidence of work and procedure done by the Auditor while performing his work.So it is the duty of every Auditor to document all the working paper.