Role Played by Professional Auditors in Uganda

The auditor must assess the transactions for how much of a risk factor is involved. When reviewing these transactions, auditor must be able to review the internal controls of the company’s accounting personnel. The segregation of duties is associated with the safeguarding of an organization 's assets and the topic known as internal control. An example of the segregation of duties would be a company 's requirement that the bank statement for its checking

Financial statements are interrelated. It is so because the financial position of a business changes after each session of good or bad financial performance. Until we measure both financial performance and position, we cannot predict the cash flow position of the business.

Financial statements provide financial decision makers with varied information presented in specific formats that is easily attainable tools to evaluate financial health. Three of the necessary financial statements are the statement of financial position or the balance sheet, operating statement also called income statement, and the statement of cash flows (Finkler, Jones, and Kovner, 2013).

Financial statements depict a picture of the financial well-being of a business and are used for financial performance analysis (Nelson, 1942; Stichler, 2008). First, the statement of financial position consists the assets that are owned by the HCO, the liabilities that the HCO has to the outsiders, and a portion of the HCO’s assets that belong to its owners (Finkler et al., 2013). It is a balance sheet indicating what the HCO has and what the HCO owes at a specific

Exceptions can be approved by the Board and are made in cases where the revenue paid for such services contributes less than 5% of revenues paid to the auditing firm. Also, a public accounting firm may provide these non-audit services along with audit services if it is pre-approved by the audit committee of the public company. The audit committee will disclose to investors in periodic reports its decision to approve the performance of non-audit services and audit services by the same accounting firm. This requirement to disclose to investors is likely to inhibit auditing committees from approving the performance of auditing and non-auditing services by the same accounting firm. Other sections outline audit partner rotations, accounting firm reporting procedures, and executive officer independence. Specifically, subsection 206 states that the CEO, Controller, CFO, Chief Accounting Officer or similarly positioned employees cannot have been employed by the company's audit firm for one year prior to the audit.

The act endorses companies to change the practice and regulations of accounting and auditing. It required them to maintain good financial recorded which were different than the past. The management team is held personally liable for the reliability and accuracy of the financial statements. All publically listed companies must establish a system of internal controls which must be evaluated by management at least quarterly and external auditors are required to conduct independent assessments of company’s in –house internal controls as well as report any fault or fraudulent acts they observe.

According to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), The primary objective and responsibilities of auditor is to express an opinion on the fairness with which all financial statement including all of its (material aspects, financial position, the result of the company operation and its overall level of cash flows) AU Suction 110. Thus, what this means is that auditor must be fully independent and must be fully able and willing to apply professional judgment as it relates to the audit engagement under consideration.

Financial statement measures the financial performance, liquidity and strength of the firm, it is important

An audit is based when management prepares the financial statements, maintain internal control over financial reporting, and provide relevant information and access to the auditor.

Auditors who do not perform independently will face the potential risk of losing professional credibility and being punished with fines or imprisonment. Moreover, auditors should act ethically in the interest of public and provide unbiased audit reports to the public, especially to those who will make future decisions based on these audited financial statements, such as investors, employees or lenders. It does not mean that the auditor could not behave in both parties’ interest at the same time, but when a conflict occurs between interest of public and that of management, auditors should choose to behave independently, keep audit work fair and honest, and ensure their work assists the public to make a right evaluation on the audited client.

It is important for every business to carry out financial statement analysis in order to gain an understanding of their current financial status. There are two main types of financial statements that businesses commonly use when it comes to financial analysis. These are known as the Profit and Loss Account and the Statement of Financial Position. A profit and loss account consists of a list of expenses incurred by the company, against their revenues over a certain period of time. It shows whether the organisation

Internal auditing is an independent objective assurance and consulting acitivity designed to add value and improve an organizations operations.

According to the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), (2011), the internal auditing is a team of consultants, a department and a division or other practitioner which independent, have objective assurance and conduct a consulting activity which is designed to add value and improve the organization operations. The internal auditor can help an organization in achieving its objectives by bringing a discipline and systematic approach in order to improve and evaluate the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance process.

A company prepares financial statement to provide information about its financial position and performance. This information is in turn used by a wide range of stakeholders (such as investors, banks, customers, suppliers etc) in making economic decisions with respect to respective economic interest in the company. Typically, in terms of ownership by investment in shares of the company, shareholders though own the company but do not manage it. Therefore, the shareholder and other such stakeholders to get comfort in taking sound decision need independent assurance from the auditors that the financial statements reflect true and fair view of the company affairs in all material respects. Hence, in order to enhance the level of

There have been previous instances of CAG audits and investigation of private companies’ books of accounts. Most prominent from recent instance are the power distribution companies in Delhi and Reliance Industries’ Krishna-Godavari basin gas examination. But, these were performed in an unambiguous