ITPEC IP October 2018 Question 65

Evaluation must be based on audit evidence — the auditor's judgments rest on facts that were collected and verified.

In a system audit, the auditor gathers audit evidence through document review, inspection, observation, interviews and tests, and compares what it shows with the audit criteria. Every finding and every opinion in the audit report must be supported by sufficient and appropriate evidence, so that anyone can trace why the auditor concluded as they did.

Answer (b)

Why not others:

• •(a) — an area without evidence cannot be evaluated by inference; the auditor must collect more evidence or state that no opinion can be given
• •(c) — the views of the user department are at most one source of evidence; the auditor judges independently
• •(d) — following the views of the audited department would destroy the auditor's independence and objectivity

Key rule: An audit opinion is only as good as its evidence: auditors conclude from verified evidence against defined criteria, never from inference or anyone's preference.

System Audit · AI-written, may contain errors