Exercise 3

‘Audit objective’ answers the question:

What is the problem?

What does the audit need to find out?

How to find the evidence?

In order to achieve the audit objective...

audit questions need to be answered

the auditor has to read many documents

all possible audit methods must be attempted

An audit criterion describes...

audit risk

the major methods planned in the audit

the desirable situation used to weigh up the actual situation

Which of the following is not a suitable source of audit criteria?

auditees’ organisational rules

international conventions

a newspaper article

An Audit Design Matrix (ADM) is a tool for...

drafting an audit report

planning what to audit and how

illustrating your audit findings with appropriate visuals

The number of audit sub-questions

varies for different audit questions

should be limited to two

has to be more than five

Which of the following methods can be used in environmental auditing?

geographic information system (GIS) analysis

expert opinion

document analysis

all of the above

Which of the following can be defined as common-sense criteria?

The amount of fluoride in drinking water should not exceed 1.5 mg/l.

All inhabitants should have access to drinking water.

Drinking water temperature should be above 5 degrees Celsius.

Below is an extract of an Audit Design Matrix|corresponding to one of the audit questions. Choose the criteria from the drop down menu|so that they would match with the audit sub-questions|the methods and sources used as well as with expected findings.

Audit title: Environmental monitoring

Audit objective: Analyse whether environmental monitoring is conducted effectively

Audit question: Is environmental monitoring conducted efficiently?

Sub-question	Criteria	Methods\|sources	Expected findings
1. Is monitoring conducted in significant sectors?		Comparison of environmental monitoring programme against development plans\|SEA and EIA reports of main sectors posing risk to environment	Environmental monitoring programme has evolved historically. The risks deriving from new sectors are not included in monitoring programme
1. Is monitoring conducted in significant sectors?		Policy analysis	Environmental monitoring is not done systematically; some sectors have better coverage while others have none.
2. Is good governance followed for organising environmental monitoring?		Analysis of tender conditions Review of tender documentation	There is no tendering for monitoring contractors.
		Review of quality systems Review of documentation	Quality of monitoring results is not checked in all sectors.

MOOC: Introduction to environmental auditing in the public sector

Planning: designing the audit