The Securities Commission Malaysia's (SC) Audit Oversight Board has imposed a monetary penalty of RM47,500 on a former partner of Ernst & Young PLT (EY), for failing to comply with requirements of the International Standards on Auditing when auditing a public interest entity. It originally set the penalty for Sandra Segaran a/l Muniandy @ Krishnan at RM63,000. This was later reduced to RM47,500, following an appeal filed by Sandra to the SC. In a statement, the SC said the AOB found Sandra had breached Section 31Z(1) of the Securities Commission Malaysia Act 1993 for failing to comply with the registration conditions imposed by the AOB as set out in Section 31O(3). "In particular, Sandra had failed to perform audit procedures to support the basis of the audit opinion for the audit engagement in the area of property, plant and equipment. He had also performed insufficient audit procedures in the area of loans and borrowings as well as group consolidation," the SC added. (Source:https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/sc-fines-ey-partner-failing-comply-auditstandards#.YHbkC4Y0DAk)

REQUIRED: (a) Discuss the characteristics of audit evidence concerning Sandra's failure to perform. (2 Marks)

(b) In gathering audit evidence, a significant concern is the reliability of audit evidence. Discuss FOUR (4) methods that Sandra could have to adapt to assess the reliability of the evidence gathered. (4 Marks)

(c) Learning from Sandra's failure, explain THREE (3) procedures you can employ to gather audit evidence. (6 Marks)

(d) Sandra had failed to perform audit procedures in the following audit areas: i. Property, plant and equipment ii. Loans and borrowing Identify FOUR (4) substantive audit test that Sandra can adopt for testing the management assertions in one of the areas mentioned above. (8 Marks)