2024 Was It Fraud or Just Poor Audit Quality?

Overview

This session describes a state agency's quality review of a not-for-profit organization's A-133 Single Audit.  The case study describes the organization audited, its federally- and state-funded programs, and the CPA firm retained to do the audit.  Various anomalies in the financial statements alerted state officials to potential problems, and a detailed quality review followed.  Find out how the entity turned hundreds of thousands of dollars in bank overdrafts into hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash on its balance sheet.  Explore other “creative” ways to deal with fixed assets, accounts receivable, and related-party transactions.  Were the auditors just sloppy, ignorant, negligent?  Or were they active participants in producing fraudulent financial statements?  You be the judge.

Highlights

• Financial statement manipulation
• Ethics enforcement process
• Auditor conflicts of interest

Prerequisites

None

Designed For

Accountants and auditors at all levels

Objectives

• How easily financial statements can be manipulated
• How checklist auditing is dangerous
• Consequences for poor or negligent audit work
• The importance of auditor objectivity and independence

Preparation

None