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A88761 1 (2009-12-22)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadvwx0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GA ~G A 0 A countabiIlty I integrity I Reiability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 December 22, 2009 Ms. Sherry Hazel Audit and Attest Standards American Institute of Certified Public Accountants 1211 Avenue of the Americas New York, New York 10036-8775 Subject: AICPA Auditing Standards Board (ASB) September 2009 Exposure Draft for a proposed SAS, Engagements to Report on Summary Financial Statements. This letter provides the U.S. Government Accountability Office's (GAO) comments on the ASB's proposed SAS on summary financial statements. Overall we support the proposed SAS. Availability of Audited Financial Statements The ASB is seeking specific comments on the requirement for the audited financial statements to be readily available. Specifically, the proposed SAS requires the auditor to obtain management's agreement that it acknowledges and understands its responsibility to make the audited financial statements, from which the summary financial statements have been derived, readily available to the intended users of the summary financial statements. We believe that the term 'readily available' is too restrictive and that the ISA 810 wording on the availability of audited financial statements is more appropriate. ISA 810 states that the audited financial statements need to be available to the intended users of the summary financial statements without undue difficulty. We suggest using wording similar to paragraph 6 (b) ii and iii and paragraph A8 of ISA 810, as follows: 6. Before accepting an engagement to report on summary financial statements, the auditor : (Ref: Para. A2) (a) Determine whether the applied criteria are acceptable; (Ref: Para.vA3-A7) (b) Obtain the agreement of management that it acknowledges and understands its responsibility: i. For the preparation of the summary financial statements, in accordance with the applied criteria; ii. To make the audited financial statements available to the intended users of the summary financial statements without

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