During the audit of Solar Technologies, Inc., the auditors sent confirmation requests to customers whose accounts had been written off as uncollectible during the year under audit. An executive of Solar protested, saying, "You people should be verifying that the receivables on the books are collectible. We know the ones we wrote off are no good."

a. What purpose, if any, is served by this audit procedure?

b. Does the Solar executive's statement suggest some misunderstanding of audit objectives? Explain.