P3 Quality assurance

Quality assurance is a planned process to:

• provide confidence product suitabilty for intended purpose
• should be fit for purpose and right to elminate mistakes
• applies to all audit engagements

May include

• assignment of staff with right skill who take time to spread expertis with joint auidts. CAE attends relevent high profile meeting

meaning of quality for IA

2 aspects:

• meeting stakeholder expectations (which will vary) THUS  quality assurance programme should be tailor to org
• conforming to professional standards - most professtion have them and std form framework for the prof quality system 

THUS the IPPF (specifically definition, international standards and code of ethics) SHOULD inform such QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAMME for IA  - under ATTRIBUTE STD 1300

• est a QAIP underpinning day to day delivery of reliable assurance + consulting service
• continuous improvement to manage quality - improving manner of sevice provison by IA to deliver changing organisational needs

CAE MUST DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN A QAIP OF ALL ASPECTS OF IA ACTIVITY

Ongoing review of quality - ongoing review and daily action to assure righ level of quality achieved including general mgmt task such as supervision of junior staff and review of audit work

Periodic internal assessment - supplement - by people within org of quality of IA activities. covers all international standards - allow chance to look aback and take stock

External assessmetn - by people external reviewers truly independed of dept and org. occur at least one 5 yrs

RESULT REPORTED TO STAKEHOLDERS ESP THE BOARD AND AC. NON CONFORMANCE and implication MUST BE REPORTED TO THE BOARD

In addition, stakeholder may not be aware of prof stds thus IA have a role raising awareness of standard and code of ethic - PROMOTING THE STD AND CODE OF ETHICS

CAE responsible for implementation - other group in org responsiblity to respect the quality of IA function including :

• AC responsible for monitoring and reviewing effectivness of IA
• indiviual auditiors expected to conduct audit in respect of std and code of ethics
• further large org CAE likely to delegate work of QAIP to another member of staff

Detailed process - IS NOT SET IN STDS AND PRINCIPLES OF QAIP - policies, processes and procedure depend on  SIZE STYLE CULTURE OF ORG. AND stakeholder neepl play big role determining components

BEGINS (STARTS WITH CORPORATE & IA STRATEGIES):

• identifiying objective of IA funcition - ascertain stakeholder expectaions and understanding of requirements of stds. once id CAE est process, policies and procedure covering:
• activities to deliver obj - RM that impact and liklihood of IA achieveing obj AND monitoring and evaluation - activities to collect and report facts. THESE ACTIVITIES FORM PART OF STRATEGIC PLAN THUS QAIP INTRINSICALLY LINKED TO IA  STRATEGY - 

QUALITY REVIEWS - PART OF QAIP should evaluate and conclude the quality of IA activity and lead to recommendation for appropriate improvement covering:

• compliane with international std and code of ethics incl timely corrective action to remedy any sign noncompliance incidences 
• adequacy of charter, goals,obj, policies and procedures
• contribute to org governan, risk management and control processes
• compliance wiht applicable laws , regulation and government industry practices
• effective continous improvement activivies and adoption best practice
• measure extent IA adds value and improve operations

MAINTAINING ONGOING REVIEW OF QUALITY - built in normal activities and routines. reviews of audit engagements by audit mgrs at agreed stages e.g after preliminary sury and before TOR issues, before and after testing and just before draft report produce:

Internal assesmment - purpose determine whether IA deliver quality aind id improvements - best practice done by someone other than peson est or operate procedure

External assessment - provide independent assurance to stakeholders that quality is effective - Attribut 1312 at least once every 5 years

BUT - factor indicate more frequent assesment desireable. e.g. UK public sector requiredment to comply with higher governance std - more frequent assessments or org complying with UKCG code use external assessment as input to AC review of effectiveness of IA in its annual assurance statement.

may be due to changes - e.g. IA strategy or audit approach.

2 styles conform to international stds:

• independent assessment - carrid out by reviewer or team who are independent of org
• self assessment with independent validation - majority of work done on self assessment basis then revew by independent reviewer or review team

AREA FOR EXTERNAL ASSESSMENT INCLUDE:

• COMPLIANCE WITH STDS/AUDIT REPORTING LINE - INDEPENDEN AND OBJECTIVE
• AUDIT TEAM - COMPENTENT AND QUALIFIED

• Greatly improve quality
• help add value
• credibility enhanced
• demonstrate continuous review
• EA give independent assurance to SM on effectiveness of function
• meet expectation/ stakeholder focussed
• fact based decision making

Requires:

• plans to establish and identify documents
• collects data record
• analyse data >to make use like, compare current peformance, identify practices>isolate issue
• adapts enabled the settig of large vision to implement

Defined as  CONTINUOUS ACTIVITY OF IDENTIFYING, UNDERSTANDING AND ADAPTIING BEST PRATICE AND PROCC THAT LEADS TO SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE - Separate discipline that drive forward improvements

HOW - continous practice of comparing performance and processes between different parts of same organisation or between different org.- through process of comparing cost time productivity to another considered industryg std or best practice.

WHY - to identify and implement improved performance by finding changes made to drive improvement.  USED TO MEASURE PERFOMANCE RESULT  in metrics that can be compared - cost, audit, staff performance

• BENEFIT - create better understanding
• recognise need to timprove
• awareness of customer changing need

4 benchmarks - Internal (compare operations and process). Competitve (against another). Financial - funcitions in industry. Generic (busines process irrelevant to industry)

A

A

Intenal assessment

• composed of rigorous, comprehensive procees: continous supervison and testing of IA work, periodic validations of conformance to IPPF - MEASURE WITH SUPERVISION, CSQ
• ongoing monitoring with day to day supervison, review and measurement of IA activity. also peer reviews by other staff in IA or organisation  MEASURED  WITH CHECKLIST AND PROCEDURES/ SELECTED PEER REVIEW PAPERS/ PROJECT BUDGETS + TIMEKEEPING

Extenal Assesment

• conducted at least every 5 years by qualified independen external reviewer or review team from outside org. frequency and qualification of reviwer discused with board

CPD

• staff must continuously enhance knowldedge, skdill and competencies through CPD