Authors :
Simon Peter Mulati; Nico van der Merwe
Volume/Issue :
Volume 7 - 2022, Issue 3 - March
Google Scholar :
https://bit.ly/3IIfn9N
Scribd :
https://bit.ly/3xanNV8
DOI :
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6415006
Abstract :
Audit quality has been a major debate within
the financial reporting and auditing fraternity for decades
as a result of major scandals. The current study seeks to
propose improvements to the key engagement
performance quality control (QC) measures in the Office
of the Auditor General (OAG) of Uganda regarding preengagement discussions, resource deployment,
supervision, review and documentation. The research
objective is to establish, evaluate, and propose
improvements to the key engagement performance QC
measures used by the OAG and private audit firms in
undertaking both in-house and outsourced public
universities’ audits. The study adopts a qualitative
research strategy; the multiple case studies being those at
four public universities (as audit clients of the OAG), the
OAG Uganda and five private audit firms to which
government audits are regularly outsourced. The study
used semi-structured open-ended interviews
administered to 51 respondents while data was coded a
priori and analysed using the Atlas.TI software. The study
shows that the OAG faces high workload, partial or no
documentation using the Teammate audit software, poor
work assignment and resource deployment style,
undefined audit supervision and review responsibilities
leading to an overlap of roles by senior managers, poor
QC for outsourced audits, client audit stress from
analogous audit activities by accountability institutions
and poor attitude of staff and management towards
quality management. The recommendations from this
study will not only benefit government sector auditing in
Uganda, but also in other countries and are therefore of
universal value.
Keywords :
Audit Quality, Government Sector Auditing, Outsourced Audits, Supervision, Review, Documentation, Deployment, Pre-Engagement Discussions.
Audit quality has been a major debate within
the financial reporting and auditing fraternity for decades
as a result of major scandals. The current study seeks to
propose improvements to the key engagement
performance quality control (QC) measures in the Office
of the Auditor General (OAG) of Uganda regarding preengagement discussions, resource deployment,
supervision, review and documentation. The research
objective is to establish, evaluate, and propose
improvements to the key engagement performance QC
measures used by the OAG and private audit firms in
undertaking both in-house and outsourced public
universities’ audits. The study adopts a qualitative
research strategy; the multiple case studies being those at
four public universities (as audit clients of the OAG), the
OAG Uganda and five private audit firms to which
government audits are regularly outsourced. The study
used semi-structured open-ended interviews
administered to 51 respondents while data was coded a
priori and analysed using the Atlas.TI software. The study
shows that the OAG faces high workload, partial or no
documentation using the Teammate audit software, poor
work assignment and resource deployment style,
undefined audit supervision and review responsibilities
leading to an overlap of roles by senior managers, poor
QC for outsourced audits, client audit stress from
analogous audit activities by accountability institutions
and poor attitude of staff and management towards
quality management. The recommendations from this
study will not only benefit government sector auditing in
Uganda, but also in other countries and are therefore of
universal value.
Keywords :
Audit Quality, Government Sector Auditing, Outsourced Audits, Supervision, Review, Documentation, Deployment, Pre-Engagement Discussions.
