The internal audit department (IAD) of ABDC Bank has recently developed in-house Computer-Assisted Analysis Tools and Techniques (CAATTs) within their department to replace the traditional audit procedures that have been practised for more than a decade. The applications primary purpose is to conduct a routine annual audit on all of their business activities and all other audit investigations within the bank. The CAATTs has been developed after reviewing various options, including the availability of data and devices, availability of CAATTs in the market, and opinions from the banks external auditors.

Many techniques and procedures have been embedded within the application to analyse all real-time corporate activities and accounting transactions. These new CAATTs also able to analyse all bank products such as savings accounts, credit cards, fixed deposits, loans, hire purchase accounts, and investments at all 199 branches throughout Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore.

The authorised auditors can also access all online business documents, human resource, payroll, journal entries and financial reports within the IAD. It is believed that these CAATTs is to be similar to the generalised audit software such as Win-IDEA and ACL which are available in the market. However, according to Mr. Mike Ross, the head of the IAD, instead of CAATTs, some embedded audit modules also have been integrated within the bank information system. He added that this would help the department to identify misstatement and fraud.

REQUIRED:

(c)Do you believe that CAATTs could facilitate auditors to identify fraud? Explain your answer.