The case company is OTS Holdings Ltd (OTS/Company/Group), a food manufacturing group specializing in ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook meat products. It listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) in June 2021 and is audited by RSM Chio Lim LLP (RSM).
A short company background for OTS is provided below. However, to complete this GBA well, you are expected to research for relevant additional information about OTS and audit considerations relating to the ongoing pandemic situation in OTS’s markets.
The OTS Initial Public Offering (IPO) document dated 8 June 2021 is provided on Canvas for your reference. You will find additional relevant and detailed information in the sections:
1.
The OTS group has been audited by RSM for several years. However, its new listed status from June 2021 has affected the audit risks for the financial statement audit engagement.
Assume you are the RSM audit manager for the OTS engagement.
As at 31 March 2021, prepare the audit planning memo (APM) for the OTS engagement for the audit engagement partner to review. The APM should document the following matters:
- Analyse the risks that OTS faces and the expected impacts on the financial statements for the year ending June 30, 2021, to evaluate the most significant risk of material misstatement (RMM) in each of the following business processes: revenue, inventory management, and HR management.
- For each of the three RMM evaluated in (a), relate the key control(s) that OTS has already implemented, and discuss the audit procedures that the RSM audit team will perform to test the key control(s).
- For each of the three (3)RMM evaluated in (a), propose the substantive audit procedure(s) that the RSM audit team must perform to produce the most reliable audit evidence, and indicate any potential challenges in completing these substantive procedures in the period before and/or after the year-end.
The APM should be:
- Addressed to the audit partner.
- Written using the appropriate technical and professional terms.
- Initialed and dated by the audit manager.
- A maximum of six pages long, observing the format requirements stated in the GBA instructions.
In preparing the memo, you are expected to reference applicable materials taken from the following sources:
- Information on OTS’s risks, strategy, operations and financial results, as disclosed in its IPO document dated 8 June 2021.
- ACRA’s Audit Practice Bulletin (APB) No.1 of 2020, which outlines the key audit considerations arising from Covid-19.
- ISCA’s Covid-19 FAQs (Auditing), which address how to deal with issues that auditors would face due to the pandemic restrictions and circumstances.
The IPO document is available on Canvas. The ACRA APB and ISCA FAQs are available at https://isca.org.sg/covid-19-series/resources/technical-resources.
2.
Since 2003, OTS has recognised the importance of technology in increasing its productivity and efficiency. The Group has placed increasing reliance on its ERP system to connect every step of the manufacturing process – from research and development to order taking, product development, sourcing, food processing, packaging and delivery. The ERP modules that have been implemented enable management to track and monitor every aspect of its manufacturing process and products with speed, accuracy and ease.
Given the recent spate of ransomware attacks, the OTS audit engagement partner is concerned about the risks to the Group’s business, operations, accounting records and financial statements. He requests the RSM IT audit specialist supporting the OTS financial statement audit engagement to analyse the risks and their impact, and ensure that the procedures performed on the OTS network and computerised information systems will address these risks.
Assume you are the supporting RSM IT audit specialist. As at 30 April 2021, prepare a CIS audit plan for the OTS audit engagement, to document the following matters:
(a). Based on the information provided by OTS
- Appraise the impact of the ERP system on the Group’s business, operations and accounting information.
- Analyse three (3)related confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA) risks.
- Identify one (1)key general control that OTS should have implemented for each risk.
- Explain how these general controls will be tested.
(b) Assess two (2)key application controls in the OTS ERP system that relate to the RMM evaluated by the OTS audit engagement manager.
(c) Construct one (1)test data set for each of the two ERP application controls assessed in
Each test data set will include test data that would be accepted, and test data that would be rejected.
(d) Design the analytics procedures that will be performed to gather substantive audit evidence relating to:
- Accuracy of inventory purchase cost recorded as at 30 June 2021.
- Aging of inventory items as at 30 June 2021.
- Any potential excess balance of inventory (raw materials, WIP and finished goods) as at 30 June 2021.
The procedures designed must identify the data to be tested, and the specific ACL function(s) used to execute the procedure, e.g. Join, Classify, Age, etc.
The CIS audit plan should:
- Indicate the client and period covered.
- Use the appropriate professional terms and technical details to describe the ERP controls, test data sets, audit objectives, analytics procedures and ACL functions.
- Be initialed and dated by the IT audit specialist.
- Be a maximum of four pages long, observing the format requirements stated in the GBA instructions.
- The OTS IPO document dated 8 June 2021 provides relevant IT-related information including the following:
- p50: risk of disruption to production facilities and/or cold store.
- p59: risk of disruption the IT system, and protection and backup measures implemented.
- p136: OTS’s technology driven manufacturing capabilities.
- p158: secured access to computer systems through firewalls and/or passwords.
