Jane Goodperson performed an audit on the Quagmire Corporation and issued an unqualified opinion. Jane performed the audit with due professional care and in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards. Two months after the report is issued, Jane discovers on the news that the CEO of Quagmire, Johnny Best, had been stealing small amounts of inventory. The amount, however, is immaterial compared to the overall inventory of the corporation. Jane soon receives a call from Quagmire's CFO, Mark Beastly. Mark wants Jane to refund her audit fees. Mark thinks Jane did not properly perform the audit, as she did not discover this fraud. Further, he feels that now Quagmire's financial statements are not fairly stated because of Jane. How should Jane respond to this claim?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Jane should tell Mark that her responsibility was to plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether caused by error or fraud. She had no responsibility to plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance that misstatements, whether caused by errors or fraud, which are not material to the financial statements will be detected. Quagmire's management, not Jane, has responsibility for the financial statements. In fact, because of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, Mark had to assume explicit responsibility for the financial statements by "certifying" that he, as CFO, is responsible for establishing and maintaining internal control and that the financial statements fairly present the entity's financial conditions and operations. This statement is probably still true, since the amount stolen was immaterial.