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National Audit Office Auditing Standards

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The National Audit Office has outlined comprehensive auditing standards and field standards for its auditors. These standards are designed to ensure that audits are conducted efficiently, effectively, and in a timely manner.

Audit Planning (Field Standard 1)

Key Principles

  • The auditor should plan the audit to ensure it is conducted in an economic, efficient, effective, well-coordinated, and timely manner.
  • A detailed approach should be developed for each audit assignment.

Development of an Audit Plan (Field Standards 2-3)

Requirements

  • An audit plan should be developed for each audit assignment, following guidelines outlined in the Audit Manuals.
  • The plan should be comprehensive, detailing all aspects of the audit.

Internal Control Systems (Field Standards 6-7)

Key Responsibilities

  • The auditor should acquire a comprehensive understanding of the accounting and internal control systems to perform an effective audit.
  • Management of the audited entity should be informed of material weaknesses in the design or operations of these systems.
  • Internal control devices relied upon by the auditor must always be tested.

Risk Assessment (Field Standards 8-10)

Requirements

  • Risk assessments should be performed for all audit work conducted by the National Audit Office to ensure an effective audit.
  • The auditor should exercise professional judgment in assessing audit risk and carry out necessary tests to reduce it to an acceptable level.
  • All components of audit risk should be documented in working papers.

Audit Materiality (Field Standards 11-12)

Key Considerations

  • Errors or deficiencies in financial statements or other information should be regarded as material if users would draw different conclusions or make different decisions if aware of them.
  • When planning the audit, the auditor should assess materiality to determine acceptable errors without affecting users.