2. PRESENTATION OUTLINE
OBJECTIVES OF THE
SESSION
WHAT IS AUDIT
QUESTION
CHARACTERISTICS OF
AUDIT QUESTION
LINK BETWEEN AUDIT
OBJECTIVE AND AUDIT
QUESTIONS
EXAMPLES OF AUDIT
QUESTIONS
3. OBJECTIVES OF THIS SESSION
Gain an
understanding of
audit questions
01
establish clear and
relevant audit
questions
02
break down audit
questions to the
appropriate level
03
5. CHARACTERISTICS
OF AUDIT
QUESTIONS
Should define and
structure the audit
Have to cover all
aspects of the audit
objective, within the
decided scope
To verify the audit
problem and address
causes to the problem
Often needs to be
broken down to sub-
questions that can be
answered comparing
facts with criteria
6. LINK BETWEEN
THE AUDIT
OBJECTIVE ABD
QUESTIONS
The audit
objective is an
overall
statement
about what
the audit is to
accomplish.
One short audit objective
is too general to give clear
directions for planning
and implementation of
the audit.
We need to
break it up
into more
manageable
pieces
We break it into questions
that are to be answered
in the audit
8. B9.8
Breaking down the audit objective
AO: Assess to what extent the MoH
have put in place sufficient
measures to ensure that people
protect themselves against malaria
AQ1: Are people
educated on how to
protect themselves?
AQ1.1: Are
information
brochures
available?
AQ1.2:Are
brochures
understandable
and of good
quality
AQ1.3: Are health
workers briefed on
educating people?
AQ2: Is protective
equipment available?
AQ3: Do the ministry
have sufficient
information to monitor
and follow up the
situation?
AQ1.3: Are other
channels of
information
utilised?
9. EXAMPLES OF AUDIT QUESTIONS
Audit Objective
• The audit examined whether Minerals
Commission and Environmental
Protection Agency have developed and
implemented key elements that promote
environmental sustainability in the SSM
sector. The key elements were:
• designating areas for SSM
• licencing and permitting
• monitoring
Audit Questions
• Did MC develop and implement appropriate procedures for
demarcation and control of areas for SSM?
• Did SSM companies obtain their licences and permits from the
MC and EPA on time?
• Did MC and EPA collaborate permitting and licensing to ensure
that both entities had records on SSM companies before they
start operations?
• Did the Inspectorate Division (ID) of MC ensure that SSM
companies submit appropriate plans before issuing them with
Operating Permit (OP)?
• Did EPA ensure that SSM companies posted appropriate
reclamation bonds during permitting, based on approved
reclamation plans?
• Did MC and EPA develop and implement monitoring plans that
were focused on environmental risks associated with SSM
operations and reported on them?
10. EXAMPLE OF AUDIT QUESTIONS
Main audit objective
• To ascertain whether MC and EPA have
ensured that small-scale miners
reclaimed mined lands to returned them
to their maximum beneficial value as
required under their licence’s agreement
and Regulation 23 of the Environmental
Assessment Regulations, 1999.
The specific objectives for the audit were to
determine whether:
• EPA had developed and implemented
procedures that ensured that small scale miners
posted reclamation bonds.
• MC ensured that SSM companies/groups
submitted operating plans of reclamation
procedures for assessment and approval before
issuing them with operating permits.
• EPA and MC monitored and appropriately
reported to ensure that miners complied with
reclamation conditions in their licenses and
permits
• EPA and MC verified, and certified reclamations
works carried out by small scale miners.
11. EXAMPLE OF AUDIT QUESTIONS Cont..
The specific objectives for the audit were to
determine whether:
• EPA had developed and implemented
procedures that ensured that small scale miners
posted reclamation bonds.
• MC ensured that SSM companies/groups
submitted operating plans of reclamation
procedures for assessment and approval before
issuing them with operating permits.
• EPA and MC monitored and appropriately
reported to ensure that miners complied with
reclamation conditions in their licenses and
permits
• EPA and MC verified, and certified reclamations
works carried out by small scale miners.
Audit Questions:
• What procedures did EPA develop and
implement to ensure that small-scale miners
posted reclamation bonds?
• How did MC ensure that SSM
companies/groups submitted operating plans
for assessment of reclamation procedures
before issuing them with operating permits?
• How did EPA and MC carry out compliance
monitoring and reported on them to ensure
that miners complied with reclamation
conditions in licences and permits?
• How did EPA and MC implement procedures
in place to verify and certify reclamations
works carried out by small-scale miners?
The audit objective is an overall statement about what the audit is to accomplish. One short audit objective is too general to give clear directions for planning and implementation of the audit.
The audit team needs to formulate a set of audit questions that respond directly to the audit objective covering all relevant aspects within the audit scope. Audit questions respond directly to the audit objectives and provide distinct avenues for exploring the particular aspect of an audit objective. They influence the nature of evidence that the team collects and cover the whole scope of the audit at the project level or in regard to the specific aspect of the audit they focus on.
We therefore need to break it down into more manageable pieces, to see what we need to do to conclude on the audit objective - we break it into audit questions and sub-questions that are to be answered in the audit.
If a “questions tree is drawn”, starting from an audit question that addresses the main audit problem, normally to be verified in the audit, the logic is that the questions on the lower level together explain the causes to problems addressed by questions on the level above.
The audit questions and sub-questions should together cover all aspects relevant to the audit objective, unless a certain aspect has been explicitly excluded in the scope of the audit. If there some important aspect is not covered in the audit, this must be made explicit in the report and the implication of it must be considered in all analysis. The auditors should try to avoid overlapping questions.
This way we become increasingly more specific, and it is easy to see what we need to do, what issues that needs to be addressed, in which areas we need to identify criteria and consider o what data we to collect in the audit to answer the audit questions and conclude on the audit objective.
The audit questions and sub-questions provide a good overview of the whole audit.can also be a tool to scope, see if it is too big, need to cut off some branches.
The questions will guide the auditors, as they will try to answer them by collecting data about the factual situation and compare this with audit criteria. In AFROSAI-E courses, participants are usually recommended to normally not use more than 4 – 6 audit questions in order to maintain a clear focus. It is better to use a few overall questions and further detail them into sub-questions or even sub-sub-questions.
When performance audits focuses on an audit problem, the audit problem needs to be verified in the report. It makes no sense to analyse causes to why the Traffic Police does not address risk factors for accidents unless it can be proven that this is the case. The rest of the question would then address the causes to the main problem.
audit objectives and provide distinct avenues for exploring the particular aspect of an audit objective. They influence the nature of evidence that the team collects and cover the whole scope of the audit at the project level or in regard to the specific aspect of the audit they focus on.
We therefore need to break it down into more manageable pieces, to see what we need to do to conclude on the audit objective - we break it into audit questions and sub-questions that are to be answered in the audit.
If a “questions tree is drawn”, starting from an audit question that addresses the main audit problem, normally to be verified in the audit, the logic is that the questions on the lower level together explain the causes to problems addressed by questions on the level above.
The audit questions and sub-questions should together cover all aspects relevant to the audit objective, unless a certain aspect has been explicitly excluded in the scope of the audit. If there some important aspect is not covered in the audit, this must be made explicit in the report and the implication of it must be considered in all analysis. The auditors should try to avoid overlapping questions.
This way we become increasingly more specific, and it is easy to see what we need to do, what issues that needs to be addressed, in which areas we need to identify criteria and consider o what data we to collect in the audit to answer the audit questions and conclude on the audit objective.
The audit questions and sub-questions provide a good overview of the whole audit.can also be a tool to scope, see if it is too big, need to cut off some branches.
The questions will guide the auditors, as they will try to answer them by collecting data about the factual situation and compare this with audit criteria. In AFROSAI-E courses, participants are usually recommended to normally not use more than 4 – 6 audit questions in order to maintain a clear focus. It is better to use a few overall questions and further detail them into sub-questions or even sub-sub-questions.
When performance audits focuses on an audit problem, the audit problem needs to be verified in the report. It makes no sense to analyse causes to why the Traffic Police does not address risk factors for accidents unless it can be proven that this is the case. The rest of the question would then address the causes to the main problem.
But the objective is too high level/ too general to know exactly what to examine to answer it.
We need to break it up into more manageable pieces, to see what we need to do to conclude on the audit objective - we break it into more spesific questions that are to be answered in the audit
The logic is that the question on the lower level together answer the objective or the Audit question on the level above.
Should together cover all the relevant aspects, but should not be overlapping
This way we become increasingly more specific, and it is easy to see what we need to do, to investigate, what data to collect in the audit.
Gives a good overview of the whole audit, can also be a tool to scope, see if it is too big, need to cut off some branches..
When broken down, the questions on the lower level should together answer the queston (or objective) on the higher level.
The different questions often adress the causes of the problem
Can be broken down further
NOT to be confused with the problem tree!!
