The Accountant Nov-Dec 2016

Business Practice and Development
the main objectives should be;
1. To share insights about the entity and
it’s environment and the entity’s business
risk.
2. Provide an opportunity for the team
members to discuss how and where the
entity might be susceptible to fraud.
3. Emphasize the importance of
maintaining professional skepticism
throughout the audit regarding the
potential for material misstatements due
to fraud.
4. To understand the best tools and
techniques to use during the period of
audit e.g. use of SWOT analysis tool
where the business entity is divided into 4
parts to cover the strengths(S),weaknesses
(W),opportunity (O) and threats (T), use
of Mindsets technique where all ideas
generated by the team of auditors should
be considered away from the cycle at the
center and linked to thoughts branching
out from the same line. Several mind
mapping techniques are available online.
A good mind map shows the ‘’shape’’ of
the subject and relative importance of
individual points and the interrelation of
facts. Mind maps during brain storming
help summarize information and help in
consolidating information from different
research sources.
In this modern digital world where
innovative ideas are critical to the
generation of high quality ideas and
given that audits opinions are based on
facts both qualitative and quantitative,
it would be prudent that brainstorming
sessions should incorporate the experts
in a given area and non-experts in that
non experts may fail to put an idea on
paper but may raise a point that may add
value in the audit reports. Remember that
there is no BAD idea as the idea may be
bad in the short run but as you progress,
it may end up being very productive.
Mark Landis et al (2008), proposes
that given the dynamics of teams, one
way to increase the number of ideas
generated in a session is to use computer
mediated communication. It can be as
simple as a conferencing call or instant
messaging software or complex software
packages called group decision support
system. This software packages offer
voting tools, electronic bulletin boards
and preprogrammed agendas to facilitate
group discussions. The audit partner
should spearhead the brainstorming
sessions.
In brainstorming sessions, brain
A good mind map shows the ‘’shape’’
of the subject and relative importance
of individual points and the interrelation
of facts. Mind maps during brain
storming help summarize information
and help in research sources.
storming teams tend to generate a greater
number of better ideas than individuals.
According to Ryan Hubbs, there
existed a largest potential loss to the
National Credit Union Share Insurance
Funds (NCUSIF) where the frauds ran
through a single credit union which
resulted in more than $170 million
in losses that involved bribery, money
laundering, fraudulent loans, corruption,
kickbacks and even Ponzi schemes. When
this kind of big fraud hits, ‘’it does not
take long for anyone to ask where were the
auditors’’. In this case, NCUSIF Inspector
NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2016 19