Three Jobs That Look Alike

Classic traps from this chapter

1. A performance audit does not normally end in an opinion. Performance auditors give findings and conclusions supported by sufficient appropriate evidence, but an overall opinion on economy, efficiency and effectiveness comparable to the opinion on financial statements is not a requirement of the framework. Options offering you such an opinion are wrong.
2. Using an evaluator’s methods does not make it an evaluation. Audit teams are expected to have knowledge of research design, social science methods and evaluation techniques. The mandate defines the instrument, never the technique.
3. Auditors do not judge the policy. They examine preparation, implementation and results against criteria. A question that has the auditor concluding that a policy objective was misguided is testing exactly this line.
4. An audit that uncovers suspected fraud does not become an investigation. The auditor reports it onward. Establishing what a named person did, and classifying it in law, belongs to a different body under a different legal basis.