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D17923 1 (2008-05-23)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadtxm0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 


                             KPMG LLP
                             2001 M Street, NW
                             Washington, DC 20036






Acting Comptroller General of the United States:

We have reviewed the system of quality control for the accounting and auditing practice of the
Financial Management and Assurance Team of the United States Government Accountability
Office (GAO FMA) in effect for the year ended December 31, 2007. A system of quality control
encompasses the audit entity's organizational structure and the policies and procedures established
to provide it with reasonable assurance of conforming with professional standards. The elements of
quality control are described in the Statements on Quality Control Standards issued by the
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and are comparable with those in
Government Auditing Standards. The GAO FMA is responsible for designing a system of quality
control and complying with it to provide the GAO FMA reasonable assurance of conforming with
professional standards in all material respects. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the
design of the system of quality control, and GAO FMA's compliance with its system of quality
control based on our review.

Our review was conducted in accordance with standards established by the Peer Review Board of
the AICPA and Government Auditing Standards, as applicable to GAO FMA. During our review,
we read required representations from GAO FMA, interviewed GAO FMA personnel and obtained
an understanding of the nature of GAO FMA's accounting and auditing practice, and the design of
the GAO FMA's system of quality control sufficient to assess the risks implicit in its practice.
Based on our assessments, we selected engagements and administrative files to test for conformity
with professional standards and compliance with GAO FMA's system of quality control. The
engagements selected represented a reasonable cross-section of GAO FMA's accounting and
auditing practice with emphasis on higher-risk engagements. Prior to concluding the review, we
reassessed the adequacy of the scope of the peer review procedures and met with GAO FMA
management to discuss the results of our review. We believe that the procedures we performed
provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

In performing our review, we obtained an understanding of the system of quality control for GAO
FMA's accounting and auditing practice. In addition, we tested compliance with GAO FMA's
quality control policies and procedures to the extent we considered appropriate. These tests covered
the application of GAO FMA's policies and procedures on selected engagements. Our review was
based on selected tests, therefore, it would not necessarily detect all weaknesses in the system of
quality control or all instances of noncompliance with it.

There are inherent limitations in the effectiveness of any system of quality control and therefore
noncompliance with the system of quality control may occur and not be detected. Projection of any
evaluation of a system of quality control to future periods is subject to the risk that the system of
quality control may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or because the degree of
compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

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