Audits are all about verifying documented compliance with written policy and procedure.
They are never about the quality of output. Produce garbage output while in compliance and you pass the audit.
Providing documentation for audits can be an enormous waste of staff resources.
As you note, most people do know what they're doing and do try to produce good output.
To have to document all of this for auditors who know less about the tasks involved than does the newest staff member is unproductive.
What about audits of the financial statements of every publically held firm?
The CPA firms that do these audits will merely issue a finding that the statements were prepared in compliance with generally accepted accounting practices.
Any CPA will tell you with a straight face that audits are not intended to detect fraud or to predict adverse operating results.
Just as no UOA can predict catastrophic engine failure, no routine audit can predict spectacular financial collapse.
They are never about the quality of output. Produce garbage output while in compliance and you pass the audit.
Providing documentation for audits can be an enormous waste of staff resources.
As you note, most people do know what they're doing and do try to produce good output.
To have to document all of this for auditors who know less about the tasks involved than does the newest staff member is unproductive.
What about audits of the financial statements of every publically held firm?
The CPA firms that do these audits will merely issue a finding that the statements were prepared in compliance with generally accepted accounting practices.
Any CPA will tell you with a straight face that audits are not intended to detect fraud or to predict adverse operating results.
Just as no UOA can predict catastrophic engine failure, no routine audit can predict spectacular financial collapse.
