Assignment on Auditing Laws Auditor Independence

Question: Describe about the Assignment on Auditing Laws for Auditor Independence. Answer: Introduction: The current assignment focuses upon the different sets of relevant auditing standards and sections pertaining to the hypothetical as well as real scenarios. The current set of answers deals with the different sets of role played by the policy making in terms of auditing and fair representation of financial figures in terms of the company. Moreover, appropriate care has been taken to ensure mentioning the relevant references pertaining to the topic under discussion. The different sets answers are directed at showcasing the applications of different sets of rules underlined in the Corporations Act as well as other relevant acts with regards to the provided sets of scenarios. The different set of circumstances that gives rise to the levels of conflicts of interest is regulated through the use of different sets of auditing practices. Regulations pertaining to the maintenance and facilitation of the performance of financial services and the different types of entities are covered through the guidelines in the Corporations Act, 2001. 1.A) Role of ASIC in investigating allegations such as insider trading The Australian securities and investments commission act (ASIC act) is responsible for ensuring that the Australian financial markets are fetched with fair and transparent information, which are supported by confident consumers and inform investors. It is an independent body under the Commonwealth Government of Australia, which is set up under the ASIC Act 2001. Most of the regulations of the ASIC act are based on Corporations act 2001 (Asic.gov.au. 2016). The ASIC is set to regulate the Australian companies, different types of financial services and corporate markets of Australia. The main role of ASIC seen in terms of financial services regulator which is responsible for contributing to the economic reputation and ensuring the well-being of the Australian financial markets some of the rules under ASIC act includes: Maintenance and facilitation of the performance of financial services and the different types of entities Promotion of confident and pre-informed participation by the consumers and investors in the financial system fective administration of law with minimum procedural requirements Enforcement and making the law effective Efficient receiving of the store and process and the information given to ASIC making the information of the companys and other financial bodies available to the public at the earliest Insider trading is the act of dealing in the stock of public company or other securities life bonds by individuals with access to important nonpublic information of a particular organization. It is considered illegal and unfair by other investors who do not have permission to access the information. Hence, it is important to investigate allegations such as insider trading as the information obtained can potentially make larger profits, which a typical investor cannot make (Austin and Smith2014). As per Corporations Act 2001, it is stated the use of information for the purpose of acquisition or disposal of the financial products or procuring another person for acquisition or disposal of the same is considered as an illegal activity; hence ASIC is responsible for detecting and investigating such acts (Bromberg et al.2016). B) Professional independence Professional independence is termed as independence of the internal or external auditors which may include from parties to have a financial interest in the audit being conducted. Definition of independence of mind The independence of mind suggests that the brain permit the provisioning often opinion without being altered by influences, which comprises professional decision-making or judgment, and allowing and individual to act with required amount of integrity. The independence of mind also includes exercising of professionals skepticism and objectivity in the activities (Lexicon.ft.com. 2016). Definition of independence of appearance The definition of the independence of appearance deals with avoiding the facts and situations which are significant enough to ensure the integrity by a third party. The information should be reasonable enough with adequate knowledge of relevant information including forms capability, integrity professional skepticism and objectivity. In other words it can be also stated that independence of appearance is related with avoiding relationships which may be seen to threaten the willingness or the capacity to criticize and scrutinize the managers. In the process of being friend in Facebook as well as LinkedIn may be seen as an act of independence of mind. C) The insider trading is related the threat of independence of appearance. This is because the maintenance of relationship seen to be threatening to the capacity and scrutiny of the managers. As per the code of ethics for professional accountants (APES 110), the companies need to provide up to date education on different types of ethical problems, and defaced and the legal restrictions which may raise the potential threat of insider trading in an organization. As per the (APES 110) it has been also stated that professional accountant in a firm should not involve himself/herself in manic relation of information for personal gain. The regulation also states that confidential information should not be used for the purpose of personal gain. This is clearly stated under section 314 of financial interests. The different types of the policies for independent management also deter minds the level of the regulation of the senior management and disclosure of the relevant interests and share k nowledge for employing organization in accordance with the internal policy framework (Abdul Wahab et al. 2015). 2. Auditors liability towards shareholders: Auditors duties under the Australian Auditing Standards includes ensuring that the financial statements are bereft of any material misstatements, irrespective of whether such misstatements have occurred due to fraudulent activities or because of errors. ASA 200 denotes the fact that the potential consequences with regards to material misstatements are significant in cases where fraudulent activities are involved. As the risks of failing to detect material misstatements by auditors are more severe compared to the frauds committed by staff of such organizations, liability of auditors increases substantially. ISA 700 para A 28 (1)c states that appropriate set of ethical guidelines are required to be followed in terms of engagements in Auditing services. In the current case of TNT Limited it is observed that the auditors did not apply due diligence or have not investigated the degree of genuinely represented financial figures amongst the data that the management has provided to such audi tors. Auditors liability towards the company: As mentioned in the ASA, the Auditors responsibility increases substantially in cases pertaining to detection of material misstatements and frauds. Moreover, the reinforcing of professional skepticism in conducting auditors in order to detect and manipulation of financial statements by the management of the respective company comes under the purview of auditors. According to the AAS 330, Para A37-40 the auditor is required to seek further assertions about fraudulent entries in the financial statements barring which the auditor can be held responsible in a case of professional misconduct along with negligence. Moreover, ASA 720 para A25 clearly states that the summarization of financial figures should contain additional set of information through footnotes and information regarding the entitys methods of coming up with such financial data. Auditors liability to individual creditors: It has been clearly mentioned that the auditor has to assess any probability of financial misstatements as contained in the para A12 and A13 of the AAS 315. However, the auditors cannot be held fully responsible for a wrongful assessment of the solvency of the company. Section 307c of the Corporation Act states that the auditors are required to provide declarations pertaining to the fact that there have been no contradictions and contraventions with regards to the Auditors independence in conducting the auditing procedures. Thereby, the auditor clearly mentions that there has been no influence of management upon the Audit report in accordance with the aforementioned section. Moreover, under subsection (1) and subsection (3) of Section 307 the declaration by the auditor is compulsory and thereby the auditor cannot be relieved fro impending penalties and legal repercussions of certifying a financial system that is misrepresented. 3. Audit expectation and performance gap The different elements of the Model suggested by Brenda Porter states the Related to reasonableness, deficient performance gap and deficient standards gap. As defined by Porter in the year 1993, the composition of performance gap based on the non alignment in terms of the social expectations regarding achievements of auditors is compared to what the auditor actually ends up achieving (Ruhnke and Schmidt 2014). A reasonable performance gap is defined as what is expected by the auditors from the society, which can be reasonably accomplished. The gap related to the reasonableness is associated due to unreasonable locations. The main accusation surrounding the file was due to breach of payment terms made to Platini in the year 2011 with an amount of $ 2m of disloyal payment. The ethical committee of FIFA clearly suggested that Sepp Blatter along with Michel Platini showcased an abuse of power with regards to their posts as FIFA president and UEFA president respectively (BBC News. 2016). As per the financial statement provided by the auditors of KPMG, the consolidated financial statement of FIFA truly stated in depicting it fair and true view of the financial standings and the resultant of the operations of the cash flow they are properly maintained in accordance with international financial reporting standards (IFRS) and complying with the analysis below. The auditor of KPMG also suggested that the conduction of the audit was in accordance with Swiss auditing standards and SWISS as well as IFRS. The main difference between the perceived performance gap of auditors and the expectation of the society are seen due to several reasons. This is mainly seen because auditors provided an incomplete service to see for by not maintaining the standards of Swiss auditing standards and the laws of as per international standards on auditing (Porter et al. 2012). 4.(a) The name of the relevant company is Telstra Corporation Limited and the financial year end of the company is 30th June, 2016. (b) The total number of member comprises of 4 members chaired by an independent director. (c) The audit committee is chaired by independent directors, and as per company statute the other members are independent as well. (d) The ASX has recommended that the audit committee has to be constituted of independent and non executive directors including the committee chairman. This is required to be done in order to mitigate the agency problems as misstating the financial statements becomes relatively streamlined in case the audit committee has a conflict of interests. Moreover, the risks of overstating profits and bankruptcy are reined in case where the audit committee is devoid of any executioner power in board and who play the role of an overseer in terms of companys activities. Further, independent directors are considered to be the safe keepers of shareholders interests and thereby the reports pertaining to the financial statements are less biased and are less influenced by the company executive directors. (e) The audit fees exceed 10% of annual external audit engagement fees. As the guidelines set up by the company stares that fees earned by Ernst Young cannot exceed 1.0 times in regards to the overall fees and expenses in regards to auditing of the company. (f) The independent directors report regarding the non audit services under the purview of Ernst and Young the auditors of Telstra. The committee on audit and risks comprising of independent and non executive board members states the provision with regards to the non audit services of the company is in accordance with the general standard pertaining to the guidelines mentioned in the Corporations Act, 2001. The non audit services are stated by the company to have been conducted without compromising the level of independence of the auditors. The prohibited services according to the company policies and in accordance with the rules laid down in the Auditing Standards, the auditors are restricted from reviewing their own works pertaining their non audit services such as advices regarding corporate restructuring of the company, guidance in terms of tax policy in order to reduce the overall tax burden of the company, and reviewing different set of prospective acquisitions. (g) Increasing the non audit fees over the audit engagement fees encompasses several sets of problems in terms of conflicts of interests. As the non audit services comprises of several instances of assistance in regards to taxation policy of the company, the increases of non audit fees can lead to misappropriation of revenues through tax policies that are detrimental to the company. Moreover, the suggestion in regards to the corporate policies that are offered by the auditors can lead the pathways towards overstating of profits in regards to such decisions. (h) Ernst Young were the external auditors of Telstra for financial year 2015. (i) S J Ferguson of Ernst Young signed the audit report. (j) The report was signed on 11th August, 2016. (k) The audit report mentions AASB 101, Section 300A of the Corporations Act. (l) In the auditors opinion the financial statements of Telstra Corporation has been done in accordance to the guidelines mentioned in the Corporations Act, 2001. The financial statements of Telstra give a fair view of the entitys financial figures and performance for the year ended 30th June 2016. Moreover, the financial statements have been made in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standard. (m) Ernst and Young were hired for providing external audit service to the company. The transparency report pertains to the year 2015. (n) The transparency report encompasses review of the auditory proceedings and thereby provides documentary evidence regards to the degree of transparency maintained in auditing the financial statements of the company. The scope of auditory and non auditory services provided by the external audit firm is enumerated in the enumerated in the transparency report. Further, the report also seeks to present the degree of alignment between the auditory services provided with that of professional value creation. Moreover, the transparency reports also seek to evaluate whether the auditors have been able function independently without any form of explicit or implicit coercion on the part of the management. The transparency reports tend to enumerate the different auditory policies of the company in light of existing corporate and governmental laws. (o) The revenue of Ernst and Young from audit services $318,000 million which comprise of 26% of all revenue generated by the firm. The total revenue of Ernst and Young stood at $1,286,000 million. (p) The transparency report is not audited by external auditors. However, ASIC has reviewed the transparency report and provided an undisclosed report to the audit firm. 5. a) The procedure for the testing of the audit consists of the various considerations on the matter, which are significant to the year-end of the financial statements. This includes the related party transaction and the changed conditions, items related to financial statement and pronouncement related to recent accounting. Additionally the planning related to the audit data and the understanding of the different types of the internal control for the auditing and the application of the relative test before the conduction of the transaction prior to the dates given in the balance sheets. The above provided case consists of an audit risk as the transactions on the basis of the footnotes provided under the section AU 313. This section is related to the substantive test prior to the balance sheet clearly states that the test of the details for the reductions of the account like the property, equity capital, debt and investments (Pcaobus.org. 2016). The different types of the test related to consider the details of the transactions further states that the prior dates can be applied to the items such as the deferred charges, warranty reserves and clearing accounts. This shows that the prior dates in the sale documentation are not applicable in the above case and there is a considerable risk associates with the financial disclosure in case the prior dates with the sales are taken into consideration. Hence, it shows a considerable amount of audit risk. b) The different types of the risk model such as the inherent risk arises due to the material misstatement provided in the financial statement which are being caused due to the error detected as a result other than the failure of the controls. The control risk, are detected when the misstatements are due to the failure in the operation of the relevant entity controls (Griffiths 2012). The above-discussed risk falls under the category of detection risk as the various types as the auditors failed to detect the material misstatement shown in the financial statement of the company. An auditor is responsible to show the different types of the risks associated with the material misstatements in the balance sheet due to either fraud or error. The different types of the risk association in the detection risk are also due to the inherent limitations of the audit and the usage of the different types of the sampling related to the selection of the transactions (Hines et al. 2015). c) The key account affected for the account balances affected needs to be understood with he relating of the all the different types of the financial statements. The first financial statements affected due to the inclusion of the prior date in the sales invoice are the journal entries. The set of the financial entries getting affected is the ledger entries. The balance under the retained earnings under the balance sheet section is also seen to be getting affected with the inclusion of the above entry (Sadgrove 2016). d) The different types of the assertion which are to be tested in the audit report are related to the different types of the items such as: Occurrence Transactions, which are recognized in the financial statements, which have taken place, related to a particular entity. Completeness The transaction which were meant to be recognized in the financial statements Accuracy Te accuracy factor is related to recording the entities in an accurate manner. Cutoff The transaction that are recognized in the appropriate accounting period. Classification Then different types of the transactions which are included in the section of the financial statement and further shows then fairness in the reporting (Accounting-simplified.com. 2016). Conclusions: The above answers showcases the fact that regulations on the part of ASIC and ASX along with set of regulatory guidelines laid out in the Corporations Act, 2001 tends to minimize level of misrepresentation pertaining to the financial statements. Moreover, the different acts are aimed at putting responsibility in terms of the liabilities of auditors in case of certifying a report that does not contains fair representation of the entitys balance sheet figure and income statement. The different types of the policies for independent management also determine the level of the regulation of the senior management and disclosure of the relevant interests and share knowledge for employing organization in accordance with the internal policy framework. The role of auditors is imperative in maintenance of integrity in financial operations of the activities. 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