Seeking Forgiveness

Before the Chairman of the AOB leaves I thought that I should help him redress the inbalace (in what seems to be) that action is only taken against smaller practices and not against the big boys! Here is the opportunity Mr. Chairman:

Not long ago there was a report in a news portal that a well know transport company had lodged a police report that there were possible "wrong doings" within their procurement process . The report went on to state:

1. That a police report had been lodge, hence the entity won't make further comments as it was now a police matter.

2. That this "wrong doings" had been going on for four (4) years.

3. A forensic audit would be undertaken. I heard that this was conducted by the same firm as the auditors! Questions could be asked about independence IF this was true.

Now:

1. As you know Mr. Chairman, in auditing you select samples based on statical sampling and good practice dictates that there must be rotation of the samples and the auditor should also look for outliers. To some, common sense would say that there is a 1 in 4 chance of uncovering this "wrong doings", so this should have been uncovered. I suppose with the benefit of hindsight everyone is an Einstein.

2. As you know Mr. Chairman the external auditors also provide a private report on the "Statement of Risk Management and Internal Controls", we assume that the private report contained nothing negative, if not the Board had to amend the Statement and bring the weaknesses to the attention of the stakeholders.

3. Mr. Chairman the company has an internal audit function, I know internal auditing does not come under the AOB's purview, but imagine all these good practices adopted and yet the "wrong doings" were going on for four (4) years.

Surely Mr. Chairman there must merit for an investigation as to whether the external auditors had met the minimum international auditing standards, if not Mr Chairman history would say there must be truth to all those malicious rumours pointed in your direction and the partner at Crowe Howarth may think that he was unfairly treated.