BFA713 Audit & Assurance Individual Assessment Guidelines

INTRODUCTION
In August of 2019, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services
commenced an inquiry into auditing regulation in Australia. This inquiry was instigated by the ASIC
warnings regarding the need to improve audit quality after their audit inspections. Following several
submissions from interested parties, an interim report and a final report were formed in 2020 after public
hearings held across November and December 2019 (available on MyLO).
Ten recommendations were provided, 1 among which the following were present
1https://www.afr.com/companies/professional-services/what-the-inquiry-into-audit-qualityrecommended-20201111-p56dr2
2 Final report update for recommendation 7: The original timetable of having this rule in place by
2022 has been abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the government has been asked to
"consider an appropriate timeline for implementation, taking into consideration the economic climate."
The committee added that a "staggered implementation" for the tendering regime would "allow boards
sufficient time to establish a strategic response to the recommendation and address concerns raised by
the sector regarding current pressures and unintended consequences of a rapid implementation
schedule."

For terms of reference, submissions, media releases, public hearings and further information, see:
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Corporations_and_Financial_Serv
ices/RegulationofAuditing
ASSIGNMENT REQUIREMENTS
PART A
Select ONE recommendation out of the three listed above and explain in your own words why the
recommendation might be of regulatory concern.
- In answering this question, incorporate your understanding of the topic from the initial weeks
of the semester. Alternatively, you can also examine additional articles relating to the topic
identified in the selected recommendation.
(5 marks)
PART B
For the selected recommendation,
1. Identify a article/ paper in a journal relating to the topic covered by the recommendation.
Provide a succinct summary of the article.
2. Explain if the findings of the article support/ refute the discussion about the potential
effectiveness of the proposed recommendation.
- When discussing the articles, avoid detailed explanations referring to the motivation and
research design sections. Focus should be on the motivation and findings of the article.
- The article should be from a journal ranked A*/ A according to the ABDC rankings. Access to
the journal rankings can be found from the following link: https://abdc.edu.au/research/abdcjournal-quality-list/
- The article should have been published during the last five years (2017 to 2021 inclusive).
(10 marks)
PART C
Provide potential suggestions on the implementation aspect of the recommendation in the Australian
audit context, with an example.
- In answering this question, avoid repeating recommendations proposed by the journals selected
in Part B. Recommendations will be assessed on their practicality.
(5 marks)
Overall: References in-text and bibliography; Writing Style; Clarity & Structure (5 marks)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Length
Maximum 1200 words (+/- 10% is acceptable). Reference list is not included in your word limit.
Value
The assignment is worth a total of 25 marks. This assessment counts for FIFTEEN (15) per cent of
the marks for this unit.
Submission
The assignment is to be submitted to the Turnitin Dropbox in BFA713 MyLO by 11.59 pm on Friday,
August 13th, 2021.
• The submission must be in Word doc – DO NOT SUBMIT AS A PDF. You need to
complete the TSBE assignment cover sheet and attach it to your submission.
General formatting requirements
✓ Font size 12, 1 ½ line spacing, Times New Roman. The 1000 words include the body of the
assignment and footnotes. It excludes cover sheet, title page, appendices, and list of references. Students
should not use appendices to circumvent the restrictions on the length of the assignment.
✓ Late submission will be penalised. Refer to the unit outline for more details.
✓ Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Refer to the unit outline for more details.