a) Auditors broadly distinguish between fraud and error. For auditors, fraud, as compared to errors, is generally much harder to detect. Assume an auditor incorrectly suspects that some 'errors' are not really errors, but instead fraudulent transactions.

Which of the two types of errors we discussed (systematic vs. random) are more likely to have appeared suspicious to the auditor? Justify your response.

b) Explain the role of ISOLATION of data in a database management system for management's period end assertion 'Valuation and allocation'. In your answer, refer to the related information quality goal and draw on an example from the expenditure to illustrate how a break-down of the ACID property affects the assertion.