Countermeasures to simplify the audit procedures of grassroots audit agencies
Audit procedures refer to the detailed steps required to complete the audit work. To the auditors, they are like a map to travelers. Audit procedures cannot standardize audit behavior, ensure audit quality, and prevent audit risks. However, it is not that more and more complete audit procedures are better, but that both cost and efficiency must be taken into consideration. So what are the countermeasures to simplify the audit procedures of grassroots audit agencies?
1. The necessity of simplifying the audit procedures of grassroots audit agencies
1. It is helpful to resolve the current contradiction of few grassroots auditors and arduous tasks.
The audit tasks of the current city and county-level audit agencies are becoming increasingly heavy. In addition to statutory audit tasks such as peer review, provincial and departmental audit, the pressure of term economic responsibility audit is particularly heavy.
In accordance with the current audit procedures, from project establishment, pre-trial investigation, formulation of audit implementation plans, issuing audit notices in advance, holding symposiums, substantive audits, writing audit reports and soliciting opinions from the audited unit, The audit team explains the feedback, conducts three-level review of the audit materials, convenes a review meeting to identify issues, issues audit reports and audit decision letters, fills in the audit statistics ledger, and archives audit materials. (The budget execution audit at this level also requires Issue audit results reports and audit work reports, and audit the economic responsibilities of leading party and government cadres during their term of office. Special audit results reports must also be submitted to the government at the same level and the "Joint Office"), which consumes too much energy of the auditors and makes the audit efficiency too low. Take, for example, the financial responsibility audit we once carried out when a leader of a certain unit resigned normally. The leading cadre had been in office for 15 years. In the past, the number of regular financial revenue and expenditure audits was very few, and the available audit information was extremely limited. In addition, during his term of office, the leading cadre invested more than 100 million yuan mainly in loans to build an office building, which spanned nearly ten years. In order to collect complete and effective relevant information, it took more than 20 years to conduct pre-trial investigations and formulate audit implementation plans. Days, in order to ensure the authenticity and accuracy of the audit data, more than 40 days were invested before and after the substantive audit. Due to the complexity of the infrastructure procedures, the audit report took a lot of trouble to express the matter in writing, and it was not possible to form a complete understanding for a long time, and it was easy to write it easily. After several iterations, it took nearly 20 days to write the audit report and solicit opinions. In addition, there were great differences in the qualitative treatment of audit issues during the audit review and large-scale hearings. After searching for evidence online and asking for instructions from the superior audit agency, we conducted a review of the unit. Four auditors spent more than three months on the term economic responsibility audit, but the results were still unsatisfactory. The cost-effectiveness of the audit was poor. In a sense, it was not worth the gain, but from the perspective of grassroots auditors, we interpreted it , is also purely a helpless move.
Therefore, the simplification of audit procedures can resolve this contradiction to a certain extent.
2. It is helpful to save the cost of grassroots audit work.
Applying the current audit procedures will not only increase unnecessary capital costs for the grassroots, but also increase human resource costs. At present, grassroots audit institutions are faced with a relatively stable pattern of audited units with a wide scope, small scale, and simple internal management structures. It is of little practical significance to apply such a complete audit procedure. It is no exaggeration to say that the grassroots audit work During the entire audit process, the time spent by personnel on various procedures and documents that have no practical significance will definitely be far more than the time spent on on-site audits. There are also some documents or forms that are not mandatory but are indispensable in audit work, such as: "Reply on the implementation of audit decisions", "Summary form of audit handling and penalty matters", "Audit plan approval form", "Audit Three-level review and feedback form for matters? And so on. Auditors at the grassroots level often do not focus on the substantive review of audit projects, but spend most of their time on these procedures and documents, traveling through the sea of ??procedures and documents. This not only increases the related capital costs, but also It increases human resource costs even more and violates the requirement to save administrative costs, making it difficult to release and effectively alleviate the tight financial situation. For example, we recently conducted an audit of the budget implementation of an administrative unit directly under the municipal government. The total annual allocation was only more than 2.6 million yuan, and there was no administrative charging function or government fund income. It was purely a general audit of a small administrative unit. The audit team composed of 3 auditors takes 5 days and 15 working days from the formal start of the audit to the end of the on-site audit. However, from the beginning of the pre-trial investigation to the issuance of the formal audit report and the issuance of the audit decision, *** It lasted 29 days, including: 2 days of pre-trial investigation and discussions with relevant personnel of the audited unit, 1 day of formulating an audit implementation plan, 3 days of issuing audit notices, 7 days of substantive audit and compilation of audit materials, and soliciting opinions of the audited unit. 7 days, three-level review of audit materials and holding a hearing meeting, 7 days for qualitative analysis and processing of audit issues, and 2 days for issuing audit documents. For such an extremely ordinary small audit project, a complete set of audit procedures was completed, which lasted nearly a month. Half a month (including normal rest days), the high consumption of manpower and material resources and the low audit efficiency are difficult to accept. In a sense, it shows that it is not too late to simplify the grassroots audit work procedures.
It is an indisputable fact that the current financial difficulties of the audit agencies at the city and county levels are limited. Office funds, transportation, and communication equipment cannot meet the actual needs of the current audit work. A considerable part of the working funds of the grassroots audit agencies are inconsistent with the actual audit. Linking the revenue turned over and simplifying the audit procedures will help save human resource costs and resolve the bottleneck of financial constraints.
3. It is conducive to mobilizing the enthusiasm of grassroots auditors and effectively improving audit efficiency.
The existing audit procedures fail to fully consider the reality of grassroots audit work. The rigid regulations must be strictly followed, which is seriously out of touch with actual operations and hinders the creativity of auditors to a certain extent. Judging from the summary of the audit work carried out by the county-level audit agencies in the past three years, the 7 county-level audit agencies included in the statistics have implemented a total of 465 audit projects (units) from 2007 to 2009. On average, each county carries out about 23 audit projects a year. Among the audit projects implemented in the past three years, the annual income scale (referring to the total annual fund income of administrative institutions, the total operating income of enterprise units, and the actual investment amount of construction projects completed in the year) There are 284 units (projects) with an investment of 3 million yuan or less, accounting for approximately 61% of the total number of audit projects; among the audit forces invested, procedural time-consuming (referring to the working hours spent on audit procedures) accounts for the total audit input The strength is as high as 64%, and the number of units with problems found in audits and penalties of less than 100,000 yuan accounts for 67%. Especially at present, the superior audit agencies have proposed measures such as must review every mention and must review every departure for the economic responsibility audit during the term, which has provided grassroots Audit agencies have put forward new and higher requirements, that is, they must consider the synchronization of economic responsibility audits and cadre management departments. The current audit procedure cycle is too long, and it is difficult for audits to achieve expected goals. Audit efficiency is low, and it is difficult to mobilize and exert the enthusiasm and initiative of auditors. There is an urgent need for a set of audit procedures that are suitable for the selection, appointment, supervision and management of cadres. It can be seen that the current audit work procedures have seriously restricted the effective implementation of normal audit work by grassroots audit agencies, and it is imperative to simplify audit procedures.
Simplifying audit procedures can improve the efficiency of audit work and is conducive to the implementation of the "comprehensive audit" policy. Because the simplified audit procedure simplifies a large number of internal work processes of the audit agency, it can save a lot of audit time and help expand the audit coverage. The original rolling audit project covers the audit once every five years to cover the audit once every three years. It is truly Realize "one review every three years and one review every three years".
4. It is conducive to better serving local economic construction and giving full play to the role of auditing functions. As the importance of audit work becomes increasingly apparent, local party committees, governments, disciplinary inspection and other departments are assigning more and more tasks. Without super rapid response capabilities, it is difficult to trust those who require high-level work pressure, especially in the current Hainan Sea. The construction of Western China is in full swing, and time waits for no time. If Fujian is to truly achieve leapfrog development, it must take extraordinary measures and actions. As the guardian of the economy, grassroots audit agencies are facing unprecedented pressure and must find simple and easy solutions to the problem. methods to respond to the objective requirements of politics and reality. The simplification of audit procedures can encourage grassroots audit agencies to better perform their audit functions and complete various tasks assigned by leaders more quickly and effectively, thereby providing high-quality services for local economic construction, especially Haixi construction.
2. The feasibility of implementing simplified audit procedures
(1) The simplified audit procedures are legally feasible
1. The simplified audit procedures can draw lessons from the judiciary , the practices of administrative agencies. The "Administrative Penalty Law", "Civil Procedure Law", "Criminal Procedure Law" and other relevant legal provisions specifically stipulate simplified procedures, and have been actively used in practice. Administrative agencies such as taxation, quality supervision, industry and commerce, and judicial agencies such as public security, procuratorates, and courts have all made new attempts in applying simplified procedures in accordance with laws and regulations, and have gained good experience that can be used for reference. . It can be seen that audit supervision, as an important part of government administrative law enforcement, can learn from the practices of some existing judicial and administrative agencies and boldly explore the application of simple audit procedures. In particular, grassroots audit agencies can completely follow their own audit procedures. It has the characteristics of a wide range of objects and a small scale. It is a pilot project and has made a difference in simplifying the audit procedures. This is completely tenable in law and has a strong legal basis.
2. Simplifying audit procedures is in line with the spirit of the Audit Law. Article 38 of the "Audit Law" clearly stipulates: "Audit agencies should improve audit efficiency." Therefore, as grassroots audit agencies, we should pay more attention to the value goal of improving efficiency. We must follow the efficiency law of minimum cost input and maximum output. We must pay attention to the economy of procedures. We cannot just pursue fairness regardless of cost or price. . The development direction of audit law enforcement work should be to improve audit efficiency as much as possible while ensuring audit quality. If the specific conditions of the audited units are not considered, the current audit procedures will be implemented. Although it will help reduce audit risks, low audit efficiency will lead to Waste of human and financial resources in audit agencies. To this end, simplifying the current audit procedures, maximizing the saving of audit resources, and improving audit efficiency are fully in line with the spirit of the Audit Law.
(2) Simplifying audit procedures is feasible in practice
It is understood that Zhejiang Province, Shandong Province, Anhui Province, Jiangsu Province, Henan Province, Hunan Province, Hebei Province, Some audit agencies in Jilin Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and other places have tried out simple audit procedures for audit projects with small local financial revenue and expenditure at the city and county levels, single content, and for which the audit objects are well understood. Practice has proved that simple audit procedures Because of its unique simplicity, speed, practicality, and strong pertinence, audit procedures have brought "good news" to grassroots audit institutions: First, after implementing simple audit procedures, a lot of working time can be saved, many formal meetings can be reduced, and Office consumables have been saved, work efficiency has been greatly improved, and audit costs have also been reduced, effectively alleviating the work pressure of grassroots audit agencies; second, after implementing simple audit procedures, auditors can concentrate on audit law enforcement, audit standards, and audit We will work hard in technology, audit rectification, audit innovation, and transformation of audit results to create more quality audit products for key audit projects. We can also free up more time and energy to study and recharge, study deep-seated issues, and pay more attention to Identify problems with regularity, universality, tendencies, and policy issues in micro audits, realize the transformation from micro to macro aspects, and improve the level of audit suggestions from the perspective of macro and efficiency, be a good consultant, and fully Give play to the constructive role of auditing. It can be said that some of the above-mentioned areas have dared to experiment with simple audit procedures and have accumulated certain experience in practice, providing good environmental conditions for the provincial audit agencies to introduce unified and standardized simple audit procedures.
3. Countermeasures and ideas for simplifying grassroots audit procedures
The provisions of the "Audit Law" and its "Implementing Regulations" on audit procedures must be implemented. If simplification is needed, it must be reviewed through strict legislative procedures. As a local audit agency, it can appeal and make suggestions, but it does not have the right to change or innovate. In the process of performing statutory audit procedures, on the premise of ensuring audit quality, simplify work procedures and improve work efficiency. How to operate specifically, how to allocate resources, and how to make internal circulation more reasonable and strict, will be more conducive to grasping the key points and highlighting key points. , the audit agency can optimize, explore, and innovate, and there is no contradiction between the two.
Applicable scope of simplified audit procedures. In terms of their nature, audit projects can be divided into simple, general and complex. Only by using different procedures for different projects can the allocation of audit resources be more reasonable. General audit procedures are adopted for important audit projects with relatively complex content such as industry audits, key construction project audits, state-owned large and medium-sized enterprise audits, economic responsibility audits, and budget execution audits. It is an administrative agency or institution with a single content of fiscal revenue and expenditure, a small scale or low per capita expenses; a small scale of assets and liabilities, a narrow scope of economic activities, and a small scope of influence. The audit department has a relatively good understanding of the conditions of these audited entities, and believes that the audited entities have relatively sound systems, relatively strict internal management, and relatively standardized relevant economic activities, and implement simple audit procedures.
1. Countermeasures to simplify audit procedures under the current legal environment. In audit practice, simple audit procedures must be tried out, which naturally involves the question of whether to audit in accordance with the law. my country's current "Audit Law" and its "Implementing Regulations" do not have express provisions on simplified audit procedures. In other words, simplified audit procedures have not yet been formally legislated. Strictly speaking, regardless of the size, complexity, or complexity of the audit project, the audit agency must implement the currently prescribed audit procedures. However, some procedures are simply not necessary for small audit projects of grassroots audit agencies. In order to avoid audit risks, we can divide the current audit procedures into audit procedures involving external audit institutions and audit procedures internally operated by audit institutions. The Audit Law mainly regulates the rights and obligations between audit agencies and audited entities, and the audit procedures it stipulates also focus on standardizing external audit procedures. Violation of legal procedures by the audit agency may lead to legal consequences such as the invalidation of audit handling and penalty decisions. Therefore, any audit procedures involving the outside of the audit agency, such as sending audit notices, collecting evidence, soliciting opinions on audit reports, hearings, reconsideration procedures, etc., are both It involves the rights and obligations of the audited unit and is a legal procedure stipulated in the Audit Law. The general audit procedures should be applied.
The "Audit Law" does not clearly stipulate procedures, but audit procedures introduced by audit agencies at all levels to control audit quality, such as preparing audit project plans, formulating audit plans, preparing audit diaries, and internal reviews , holding a trial meeting, etc. are audit procedures stipulated within the audit agency, and simplified audit procedures can be applied.
2. The idea of ??simplifying audit procedures.
Referring to the model of the Administrative Penalty Law, the audit procedures are divided into general audit procedures and simplified audit procedures. General audit procedures refer to the audit procedures stipulated in the current Audit Law and its implementation regulations as well as national auditing standards; simplified audit procedures are relative to general procedures and refer to the procedures applicable to auditing agencies in auditing simple audit projects.
Audit projects that implement simplified audit procedures do not need to conduct pre-trial investigations or prepare audit work plans, and simplify the preparation process and content of audit implementation plans and audit reports.
The audit implementation plan of the simplified audit procedure may only include the following main contents: first, the basis for the preparation of the audit implementation plan, second, the name and basic situation of the audited unit, third, the audit objectives, and fourth, the scope, content, focus and response of the audit. The audit steps and methods for audit matters that have an important impact on the audit objectives. The fifth is the scheduled start and end time of the audit work. The sixth is the audit team leader, audit team members and their division of labor. The seventh is the date of preparation. The eighth is other relevant content. Relevant content such as the basic situation of the audited unit can be obtained from the audit data of previous years, or you can call the relevant personnel of the audited unit. The audit implementation plan is prepared by the chief auditor, reviewed by the department head, and implemented after approval by the leader in charge. At the same time, the basic situation of the audited unit in the audit report and the relevant excerpted report data can also be simplified accordingly, eliminating the rough and selecting the essence, so as to truly achieve the purpose of simplicity and efficiency.
Audit projects that implement simplified audit procedures do not need to write audit diaries and simplify audit working papers. Audit working papers are only required to include the following elements: first, the name of the audited unit, that is, the name of the unit or project being audited; second, the audit matters, that is, the audit matters determined in the audit implementation plan; third, the accounting period or deadline, that is, the audit The accounting period or deadline to which the matter belongs; the fourth is the auditor and the date of preparation, that is, the person who implemented the audit project and prepared the audit working papers and the date of preparation; the fifth is the audit conclusion or a summary of the problems found in the audit and its basis, that is, a brief description of the audit conclusion Or the nature, amount, quantity, time, place, method of occurrence, etc. of the problems found in the audit, as well as relevant basis; Sixth, the review personnel, review opinions and review date, that is, the leader of the audit team or the qualified person entrusted by him. Audit personnel’s review opinions on the audit working papers and the date of review; seventh is the index number and page number, that is, the unified number of the audit working papers and the page number of this page; eighth is the attachment, which is the audit evidence attached to the audit working papers and Relevant information.
The audit evidence collection procedures for audit projects that implement simplified audit procedures should highlight the key points and do not seek to cover the whole issue. Auditors analyze and judge the audit evidence that needs to be collected according to the requirements of the audit plan, and sort the audit evidence and the degree of relevance to the audit matters according to the classification of audit matters; only collect useful audit evidence, and only require that the audit evidence is sufficient to support the audit conclusion. Give up the collection of irrelevant, invalid, duplicate, and redundant evidence that is irrelevant to audit matters.
The basic elements of the audit report of the audit project that implements simplified audit procedures cannot be reduced, but the content of the report can be simplified. The basic elements include the same seven items as general procedures, namely title, number, name of the audited unit, name of the audit project, content, issuing unit, and date of issuance. The content of the audit report can only include the following six items: first, the basis for the audit; second, the basic situation of the audited unit, mainly fiscal revenue and expenditure, and financial income and expenditure; third, the basic situation of the implementation of the audit, including an explanation of the matters involved in the audit. The fiscal revenue and expenditure of the audited unit, the accounting period to which the financial revenue and expenditure belong, and related audit matters. The fourth is the audit evaluation opinion, and the fifth is the facts and characterization of the audited unit's violations of state-stipulated fiscal revenue and expenditure, financial revenue and expenditure, the decision on punishment and the basis for laws, regulations and rules, and the decision on transfer for processing. Sixth, when necessary, opinions and suggestions on improving fiscal revenue and expenditure and financial revenue and expenditure management can be put forward to the audited unit. The heads of the business departments of grassroots audit institutions are generally members of the audit team. The audit report of the audit team must be decided by collective discussion among all members of the audit team. The head of the department where the audit team is located reviews and signs the audit report without providing written review opinions. At the same time, the department where the audit team is located may not draft external audit reports and decisions for the time being, and will directly approve them after the audit business meeting is held.
Most grassroots audit institutions do not have full-time review agencies and personnel. Their internal review procedures can be merged with the audit business meeting. The leader in charge or a staff member designated by him will conduct the review before the meeting, and conduct the review during the business meeting. Review opinions were put forward at the meeting, and audit business meeting decisions were formed on the basis of full discussion. For audit projects that have fewer problems or are not serious in nature and have clear characterization, the audit business meeting may not be held and the leaders in charge will directly review and approve them.
3. Issues that should be paid attention to when implementing simplified audit procedures
Simplifying audit procedures does not mean that audit procedures can be changed at will. In administrative law enforcement, entities and procedures are equally important. Audit supervision, as an administrative law enforcement, cannot be separated from the guidance and constraints of procedures. The performance of audit program responsibilities is the guarantee of audit supervision responsibilities, because the legality of procedures is the prerequisite for legal entities. ?, Failure to enforce the law according to procedures is a serious administrative violation. Regulations that do not involve legal procedures and do not affect intrinsic quality do not need to be uniformly stipulated, and the audit team is allowed to use them flexibly on the premise of grasping the basic spirit and basic requirements of the standards system. For example, the methods, methods and content requirements of pre-trial investigation, the detailed procedures for audit diaries, the use of audit methods, the level of detail of audit reports, etc. Only in this way can we truly prevent risks and truly improve the efficiency of audit work.
In audit practice, procedural violations often occur. For example, some audit implementation plans are not made before the audit, but after the completion of the project based on the audited situation; some blindly collect evidence and fail to obtain what should be obtained. A lot of things that should not have been taken were taken, and the evidence obtained was not signed and confirmed by the provider; some of the audit working papers were incomplete; some of the audit legal documents were delivered without a receipt of delivery; some of the audit evidence was not retrieved Substitute the audit report to solicit opinions from the audited unit, etc. Various phenomena that emphasize entities and neglect procedures must be corrected.
Simplifying audit procedures cannot be at the expense of reducing audit quality. Audit quality is embodied in two aspects: one is standardization and the other is effectiveness. Evaluating the quality of an audit project mainly depends on whether it operates in strict accordance with the operating procedures stipulated in the standards system and whether it achieves significant results. Simplify audit procedures with the aim of improving work efficiency. An excellent audit project is based on standardized operations, and the core lies in whether it is effective. With the simplified audit procedures, the internal audit link has been greatly simplified. It is necessary to improve the quality of audit projects. In addition to improving the quality of auditors, it is necessary to strengthen the audit team leader responsibility system, audit law enforcement fault accountability system, administrative law enforcement responsibility system and other responsibility systems, The audit team leader is responsible for the entire audit process. The project chief auditor responsibility system is implemented. Only by further clarifying the responsibilities for administrative actions and straightening out the legal relationships in audit work can the quality and efficiency of legal audits be improved. In short, the audit quality control system focuses on adhering to the basic principles and basic requirements, and focusing on flexible application, rather than rigid application.
Simplifying audit procedures should focus more on highlighting key points. First, the key points should be highlighted in the establishment of plans and projects. It is necessary to improve plan management, strengthen investigation and research before project establishment, and formulate audit project plans on the basis of full demonstration. Second, audit implementation must highlight key points. Changing a large and comprehensive audit implementation plan requires a sense of focus. It is necessary to strengthen audit site management and actively explore the use of computer means to implement random real-time management of audit sites. Third, follow-up control should highlight key points. It is necessary to cut into key control points, such as verification and explanation of feedback from audited objects, audit review, audit business meeting review, etc. Fourth, audit management should focus on key points. Taking the selection of the best audit targets as the starting point, in-depth investigation, and investigation and handling of major cases as the characteristics, we will promote the improvement of the overall quality management level.
Simplifying audit procedures requires improving the assessment and accountability mechanism for audit responsibilities. Literally understood, audit quality accountability involves post-event supervision, which is a remedial measure after problems occur and serves as a warning to those responsible. Due to the simplification of audit procedures and the reduction of audit steps, it is necessary to strengthen the control of the audit process, move forward the post-event responsibility assessment, carry out supervision activities such as "accountability and effectiveness", and focus supervision on the audit implementation stage where supervision is relatively weak. Focus on strengthening the supervision of the audit team leader and audit team members' exercise of inspection power, focusing on inspecting audit procedures, audit implementation plans and audit quality control methods, the implementation of audit disciplines and various integrity regulations, and the completion of tasks. Internal inspections, peer inspections, etc. are used to enable the audit quality control system to operate more effectively.
Implement project control with simple audit procedures. According to the annual audit project plan, it will be proposed by the business department and approved by the leader in charge, and then determined when formulating the audit implementation plan. During the audit implementation process, if it is found that continuing to use simplified audit procedures may affect the legitimacy of the audit results or audit risks arise, the simplified operating procedures should be terminated and the audit should be converted to normal procedures. For example, the following situations: first, during the audit process, it is discovered that the auditee has many violations of disciplines or violations or the nature of the problems is serious (such as the problem of privately setting up small treasury); second, during the audit process, it is discovered that the leading cadre himself has problems with integrity and self-discipline; The third is cases where clues were received from the masses during the audit, and the auditors considered that further verification is needed after analysis; the fourth is other cases where the audit needs to be transferred to normal procedures.
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