The Weight of the Evidence · Chapter 20

Part Six · Auditing the Machine

Systems, Not Transactions

Governance, risk management and internal control as the subject matter of an audit. What a control system is made of, the three questions you ask of any control, and why reliance has to be bought with evidence.

Classic traps from this chapter

  1. Internal control has five components in the INTOSAI list, beginning with the control environment and ending with monitoring.
  2. The control environment is a culture, not a document. Honesty and ethical behaviour, integrity, competence, tone and structure.
  3. Design, implementation and operating effectiveness are three different questions. A control can pass the first two and fail the third.
  4. Reliance on operating effectiveness must be supported by evidence obtained for that purpose. It cannot be inferred from a control’s existence.

Chapter 20 in full

The traps above are how this chapter ends. The chapter itself works the material through first — the reasoning, the sources with their article and paragraph numbers, check-yourself questions with the reasons under them, and flashcards for retrieval practice.

The Weight of the Evidence is the PassEPSO study book for the field-related test of EPSO/AD/428/26: 536 pages in 27 chapters, PDF and EPUB.

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