An audit director reviewed the performance of his staff and determined that audits were taking too much time. Audit jobs consistently had been going well over the time allocated. He called a meeting of the audit managers to discuss the problem. This meeting resulted in a number of observations and suggestions, including the following:

Managers of auditee operations have begun accepting the auditors as a valuable source of information and now often request additional information from the auditors that is outside the scope of planned audit work.

• Top management, under heavy pressure from the board of directors for improved performance, has cracked down on internal control. Top management also is stressing to the audit director that audits need to be thorough and should determine all sources of any insufficiencies or ineffectiveness that may be present in activities being audited.

• One manager suggested that perhaps less detailed testing could be performed and that the auditors could specify a lower level of assurance on audit results.

• Another manager mentioned that supervision and review procedures were taking an inordinate amount of time and suggested cutting back on these activities.

Required:

Comment on each of the four observations and suggestions with respect to professionalism and due professional care.