CA Final Advanced Auditing and Professional Ethics MCQ Quiz ( ICAI MCQ 1-10)

1. PMP Ltd. is an associate of PMP Inc, a company based in Kuwait. PMP Ltd. is listed in India having its corporate office at Assam. The company’s operations have remained stable over the years and the management is looking to expand the operations for which the management is considering different business ventures. The company’s auditors issued clean audit report on the audit of the financial statements for the year ended 31st March 2020. For the financial year ended 31st March 2021, the auditors made some changes in their audit team. While the audit partner remained the same, the field incharge has been replaced, as the field incharge who was engaged in the audit of the financial statements for the year ended 31st March 2020 has left the firm. The audit team has a new person as External Quality Control Reviewer (EQCR) who has specialized knowledge of the industry in which the company is operating. EQCR has been employed with the firm for over 2.5 years and is yet to clear his CA (Chartered Accountancy) final exams. The changes were made on the basis of the consideration that the firm has enough experience of engagement with this client. The audit team commenced the work for audit of the year ended 31st March 2021 after detailed planning and it was observed that EQCR had various comments on certain matters which were not accepted by the audit partner. Audit partner had better understanding of the client and after assessing the comments of the EQCR did not find those relevant. The audit partner without concurrence of the EQCR finalized the audit and issued the audit report. In the given situation, please advise which one of the following is correct?

The changes in the audit team were not appropriate except for the field incharge who had left the firm. EQCR should have been a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

The audit partner did the right thing by ignoring the comments of EQCR as he is the final authority to decide on any matter and take decisions. Further EQCR was junior to the audit partner.

The audit partner must discuss each and every comment of EQCR with the client and ensure that a proper disclosure in respect of those points should be made either in the financial statements or the audit report.

EQCR had sufficient and appropriate experience. He should have been given the authority to objectively evaluate various matters, before the report is issued, the significant judgments the engagement team made and the conclusions they reached in formulating the report. By ignoring the comments of the EQCR, audit partner took additional professional responsibility on himself. By considering the comments of EQCR, he could have passed the responsibility to EQCR.

2. VKPL & Associates, a firm of Chartered Accountants, have been operating for the last 5 years having its office in Gurgaon. The firm has staff of around 25 persons with 3 Partners. The firm has been offering statutory audit, risk advisory and tax services to its various clients. The major work of the firm is for taxation services. The audit partners also discussed that the firm needs to work significantly to improve the quality of the services they offer and that would also help the firm to grown its business. Considering this objective, the firm started training programmes for the staff which were made mandatory to be attended. During one of the training programmes on quality, a topic was discussed regarding the information that should be obtained by the firm before accepting an engagement with a new client, when deciding whether to continue an existing engagement, and when considering acceptance of a new engagement with an existing client. It was explained that the following points may assist the engagement partner in determining whether the conclusions reached regarding the acceptance and continuance of client relationships and audit engagements are appropriate (as per SA 220): (i) The integrity of the principal owners, key management and those charged with governance of the entity; (i) The qualification of all the employees of the entity; (iii) Whether the engagement team is competent to perform the audit engagement and has the necessary capabilities, including time and resources; (iv) The remuneration offered by the entity to its various consultants; (v) Whether the firm and the engagement team can comply with relevant ethical requirements; and (vi)Significant matters that have arisen during the current or previous audit engagement, and their implications for continuing the relationship. We would like to understand from you which of the above mentioned points are relevant for the topic under discussion?

i, ii, iv and v.

ii, iv, v and vi.

iii, iv, v and vi.

i, iii, v and vi.

3. ZOV is a private limited company engaged in the business of mining. The company’s operations are fairly large and its turnover is INR 4,000 crore on an annual basis. Due to the nature of the business and the size of the company, the company has appointed a firm of Chartered Accountants as its statutory auditors who have the relevant experience of the industry in which the company has been operating. During the course of the audit of the financial statements for the year ended 31st March 2021, the audit team had various observations which resulted in many adjustments in the financial statements of the company and that was also appreciated by the CFO of the company.At the time of final reviews of the audit team, the audit partner requested working paper on final analytical procedures from the engagement team, however, the engagement team explained that they performed substantive testing procedures which also resulted in some adjustments and the same was incorporated in the final set of financial statements given to the audit partner for the review and accordingly there was no need to perform final analytical procedures. Audit partner was not convinced with this and requested the engagement team to perform this procedure. Considering that the timeline to conclude the audit was approaching, the audit partner also requested the CFO that the audit team would need some more time to perform final analytical procedures. CFO was very impressed with the engagement team and agreed for the time but he also told the audit partner that work of the team was excellent and hence the audit partner should avoid these additional procedures. You are requested to give your view in respect of this matter as per SA 520.

The explanation of the audit team was correct. After doing substantive testing which also resulted in audit adjustments, there was no need to perform final analytical procedures.

The suggestion of CFO should have been considered by the audit partner as the CFO was observing the work of the engagement team and hence he could assess that better than the audit partner.

The requirement in view of the audit partner was valid. The conclusions drawn from the results of final analytical procedures are intended to corroborate conclusions formed during the audit of individual components or elements of the financial statements.

The audit team did the right thing by not performing final analytical procedures, however, one additional procedure in that case should have been – obtain the document containing the analysis performed by the client on the financial statements. This document is required to be assembled in the audit file.

4. BDJ Private Ltd. was established in 2001 and since then the company’s operations have grown significantly. The company is based in Kanpur and has branch offices outside Kanpur. The company is engaged in tours and travels business and because of the nature of the business, it has voluminous transactions. The annual turnover of the company is INR 700 crore. During the audit of the financial statements of the company for the year ended 31st March 2021, the auditors observed wide variation in various details of sales and various expenses as compared to last year. Various balances of trade receivables, loans and advances, statutory liabilities showed significant increase and many balances were found to be non-moving which were aged for more than 3 years. On the basis of the materiality and planned procedures, the audit team requested the client for testing of various samples for sales, expenses etc. The client observed that the number of samples that the team has requested increased as compared to last year and asked the team to cut down on the number of samples so that it is the same number of samples which were tested in the previous years. The audit team did not agree with this and explained various factors which the team had considered for sample selection and the reasons for changes in the samples and also explained the requirements of SA 530 to the client but the client still did not agree. Now there is a situation of deadlock and you are requested to provide your guidance to resolve this matter.

The argument of the client is not valid. Sample selection is based on certain principles as per SA 530 and that is on the assessment of the audit team. It may change year on year and hence the client should provide the required information to the audit team.

The explanation of the audit team is not valid. Referring SA 530 was not correct in this case. The audit team should have explained their entire approach around risk assessment to the client before starting the fieldwork and should have formally shared that with the client in writing.

In the given situation, the audit team instead of getting into any arguments should cut down the number of samples and should increase their procedures around analytical work. That would resolve the problem.

The audit team should make a formal request in writing for these details from the client and if the client still refuses then they should report this matter to the audit partner. In that case, the auditing standards require audit partner to check some of the documents which may not be provided by the client to the audit team.

5. SKJ Private Ltd. is engaged in the business of construction. The company has also got some real estate projects few years back on which it started the work in the last 2 years. The annual turnover of the company is INR 600 crore and profits of INR 40 crore. The statutory auditors of the company got rotated by another audit firm due to mandatory audit rotation requirements as per the Companies Act 2013. The new statutory auditors of the company started audit of the financial statements for the year ended 31st March 2021 in May 2021. The audit team also requested the client to provide certain information on the opening balances to perform their audit procedures. Initially the management did not provide any information to the auditors on the opening balances thinking that this is not within the scope of their work, however, after going through the auditing standards, the management agreed and provided the required information. Later on, the audit team also started requesting information for the period from 1st April 2021 to 31st May 2021. With this requirement, CFO of the company got very upset and angry and set up a meeting with the senior members of the audit team. CFO raised a concern that the audit team has not been doing the work properly and has been asking for unnecessary information like information on opening balances and then the information for the period after 31st March 2021. The audit partner explained to the CFO that everything requested by the audit team has been as per the auditing standards however, CFO said that in the earlier years, the previous auditors never asked for such information. You are requested to give your view in respect of this matter.

The requirement of the auditors for opening balances was valid but for the period after 31st March 2021 is completely wrong as that is out of their scope for the current year’s audit. They can ask for those details during the audit of next year.

The concern of the CFO was valid. He has seen the previous auditors not performing such audit procedures and hence the new audit team should also follow the same approach which was followed by previous auditors as that would lead to efficient in audit.

The audit team should set up a meeting with previous auditors wherein it should be assessed why different approach was followed by the previous auditors. On the basis of that discussion with the previous auditors, next course of action should be decided.

The requirement of the auditors for opening balances as well as for the period after 31st March 2021 is valid. After the requirements of SA 510 and SA 560, audit team is required to perform these procedures.

6. M/s Ram Raj & Associates have been appointed as statutory auditors of Venus Ltd. for the FY 2020-21. During the year, the company has entered into some related party transactions. CA Ram, the engagement partner has taken a management representation letter regarding the proper accounting, presentation and disclosure of such related party transactions. Is there any further responsibility of CA Ram with respect to the other procedures to be performed for related party transactions?

No, there is no further responsibility of CA Ram as the best audit evidence for the related party transaction is the management representation letter.

No, there is no further responsibility of CA Ram as the audit firm is responsible for verifying the balances and disclosure of related party transactions. The identification of related party transactions is the responsibility of the management of Venus Ltd.

Yes, the audit firm has the responsibility to perform the audit procedures to identify, assess and respond to the risk of material misstatement arising from the entity’s failure to appropriately account for related party relationships, transactions and balances.

Yes, the auditor has the responsibility to detect fraud and error with respect to the related party transactions.

7. MNO Ltd. is a company engaged in the manufacture of Kids toys. The company sells its goods on credit basis. M/s. Ajay Vijay & Associates have been appointed as statutory auditors of MNO Ltd. for the FY 2020-21. During the course of audit, CA Ajay, the engagement partner asks the management about the email addresses of trade receivables of the company for the purpose of obtaining balance confirmation from the trade receivables. The management of the company asked its sales supervisor to send confirmation request to the trade receivables and collect all the responses and provide all such responses to the auditor. The management of MNO Ltd. also informed CA Ajay that confirmation with respect to two of its trade receivables namely Sports Star Ltd. and Kids Zone Ltd. won’t be available as a dispute between MNO Ltd. and both the trade receivables is going on. With respect to other trade receivables, the sales supervisor provided CA Ajay with all the balance confirmation. With respect to the balance confirmation request, which of the following is warranted as per the requirement of the relevant SA?

CA Ajay should not have relied on the explanation provided by the management with respect to the trade receivables namely Sports Star Ltd. and Kids Zone Ltd. and he should perform alternative procedures with respect to such trade receivables.

CA Ajay should have obtained direct response from all other trade receivables instead of sales supervisor receiving direct responses from trade receivables and providing them to the auditor.

Both a and b.

CA Ajay should give a qualified opinion as balance confirmation with respect to two trade receivables is not available.

8. m/s ABC & Associates are the statutory auditors of PQR Ltd. for the FY 2020-21. While conducting the audit, CA Aman, the engagement partner noticed the following: • Payments of various fines and penalties • Unusual cash payments Payments to various government employees not supported by any document • Notices received from various regulatory authorities. • Heavy payments to legal counsels. CA Aman should consider the above as indicative of:

Doubt on Internal Controls of PQR Ltd.

Doubt of non compliance to laws by PQR Ltd.

Doubt on the accounting system of PQR Ltd.

Doubt on the going concern assumption of PQR Ltd.

9. Auditors do not normally examine all the information available to them as it would be impractical to do so and using audit sampling will produce valid conclusions. Random selection ensures that all items in the population have an equal chance of selection, e.g. by use of random number tables or random number generators. Block sampling method includes selection of a block or blocks of continuous items from within the organisation. Which of the following selection can be considered as block sampling method?

Auditor Mr. A divided the trade receivables into 2 groups as: balances above ` 20 lakh and balances between ` 10 lakh to ` 20 lakh and selected different percentage of items from each group.

Auditor Mr. A determined the starting point as 10 for the list of receivables and selected every 10th balance for receivables thereafter as samples to perform the tests.

Auditor Mr. A selected sample size as all the high-value balances from the list of trade receivables to ensure that these balances shown are correctly recorded.

Auditor Mr. A uses a sample of 50 consecutive cheques to test whether cheques are signed by authorised signatories rather than picking 50 single cheques throughout the year.

10. You are the audit senior of Tey & Co. are responsible for the audit work to be managed for the fixed assets of the company. Tey & Co. has 4 properties amounting to ` 12.5 crore. One of the important tasks ahead for you is to confirm the ownership of these properties. Which of the following would provide the most persuasive evidence of the ownership?

To conduct a physical inspection of all the properties located at different areas.

To ask the management registration documents properties and inspect and verify them.

To check whether all of these the properties are recorded properly in the fixed asset register and depreciation has been calculated correctly.

Enquire with the management, if these properties are insured and review the insurance documentation.