New Government Auditing Standards

I'd like to take a moment to honor all of the auditors who suffered through the tragic events in New York City ten years ago today. My former New York City office was several blocks from the World Trade Center. Staff in the office watched in horror as the events unfolded.


I also know of auditors in the Banking Department and the Tax Department who never made it out of those buildings.


God Bless America.


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The Comptroller General of the United States has issued updated Government Auditing Standards, while not yet final, they are available on the Internet.

The 2011 Internet Version of Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS) contains the intended content for the final 2011 Revision of Government Auditing Standards. GAO plans to formally issue the 2011 Revision Government Auditing Standards later this year after the AICPA has completed the clarity revisions. 

The effective date for financial audits and attestation engagements is for periods ending on or after December 15, 2012. 

The effective date for performance audits is for audits beginning on or after December 15, 2011. Early implementation is not permissable. This document is only available in an electronic PDF format at:

http://www.gao.gov/govaud/iv2011gagas.pdf

Overall Changes

Chapters 1 and 2 have been realigned. Along with the introduction, chapter 1 now includes the foundation and ethical principles of government auditing. The discussion of the use and application of GAGAS is now in chapter 2.

All financial audit standards are now in chapter 4. The chapters on financial audit performance and reporting, formerly chapters 4 and 5, have been combined into one chapter.

Terminology has been updated for consistency with other standards. For financial audits only, the term “field work” has been replaced by “performance.” (For attestation engagements and performance audits, GAGAS continues to use the term “field work.” This terminology is consistent with AICPA standards.)

Consistency of the use of footnotes has been improved. Footnotes now are used strictly to refer to other sections of GAGAS and to other audit standards. Other information that was in footnotes in previous GAGAS editions has been either moved into the GAGAS text itself or eliminated.

This past week I gave a 5 hour presentation on the updated Standards. It was well-received. An e-mail said:

Hi Dave,

            Thank you again for yesterday. I am getting a lot of positive feedback today from your presentation, including “the best Yellow Book training I’ve ever gone to!” 

If your organization needs to be up-to-date on the Standards, please contact me for possible on-site training.