Enhanced Auditor Reporting In Australia: A Case Study Of Amcor Limited

Auditor’s Assurance Services for Amcor Limited

This report is made to summarize and evaluation the assurance services which are being done for Client Company and which are being provided by the auditors. This analysis also includes the audit opinion, key audit, audit committee, remuneration and non auditing services which are some of the other pertaining areas of auditing. For this analysis the company which is being selected is Amcor Limited. Amcor Limited is a global leader who produces and develops high or premium quality packaging for various products like foods, beverages, medical devices, home care products and pharmaceutical in a responsible and proper manner. From the annual report of this company, it has been understood that they internally do a second party audit that is done every three year (Shah and Richardson 2016). Their main plan is to improve and find their weak spots through continuous efforts. A monthly report is provided to the board of directors of the Amcor Limited of the safety performances and the compliances with the company. They also took a global initiative for conducting and the injuries of auditing. This report also gives a demonstration of the effectiveness of the information of the materials that is provided by the auditors of the company.

The team of auditors of Amcor Limited regularly report the board of directors about the framework of risks. Amcor Limited’s management reviews the independent loss prevention audits and the appropriate time to purchase external assurance. PWC was the auditor of Amcor Limited for the financial year 2018 and they performed statutory duties with other services as well. The annual report of the financial statements showed that hoe much did the company pay the auditor (Haywood et al. 2016).

PWC provided some non-audit services that comprised of advice given on taxation and compliance services. And the taxation related advices which they gave, has been provided by them since 2000. According to the written advice which was provided by resolution of compliance and the audit committee, the board of directors considered the non audit services of this particular financial year (Teoh et al. 2017). On the part of board the provision which is made for the non audit services done by the auditors has been satisfactory and they also indicate that according to Corporation Act 2001, the independence of the auditors was not compromised. All the non-audit services of this company was subjected to the procedures that the Amcor Limited took for their corporate governance. The committee reviewed these so that it do not have an effect on the auditor’s impartiality and objectivity. As per approval delegations and framework of the non audit services, the approval of non audit services are made or done. The auditors act as the company is advocate and jointly share the rewards and risks and act in the management’s decision-making. This is because in general principal of the independence of the auditors; by providing non-audit services, they are not undermined as their own work is not reviewed and audited (Hunter et al. 2016).

Key Audit Matters and Audit Committee Evaluation

The accounting standards and the Corporation Act 2001 require some additional information of the remuneration section of the auditors. They are paid for the audits and other services which they provide. When they audit and review the financial reports as well as other regulatory audits done by the auditors, they charge the maximum remuneration. Other services include transactions that are related to the taxation advice, services for taxation and due diligence were also charged maximum remuneration by the auditors (Bryson 2018). Their remuneration also include the other non-PWC audit services given by them. It has been observed that their remuneration section had a decrease to USD thousand 8145 in year 2018 from USD thousand 8897 in the year 2017. But the total remuneration price paid to them have increased from USD thousand 6422 in 2017 to USD thousand 7048 in 2018 for their assurance and audit services. But the remuneration decreased from USD thousand 1939 in 2017 to USD thousand 917 in 2018 for their other services.

These key audit matters play an important role in the professional judgment based on financial audits and reports for the current period. On this matter the organization does not provide any separate opinion and in the context of the report of the financial auditing, they are addressed (Lenz and Hahn 2015). Classification of table manner are given below:

Amcor Limited has both Compliance and Audit committee. This committee must have three directors and among them there must be one non executive director who meets the independence requirements. Amcor’s committee has one member who was the pervious company’s non executive director. The responsibility chart is formed for the charter of the Amcor Limited’s audit committee (Hassan 2015).

There must three directors in an audit committee including one non-executive director. The members should meet the listing and independence requirements which are being established by the boards and laws. Since each of the member have the ability to understand the financial statements, so involvement of the entire member are required while the board judges. The committee must have proper independence to do their work and should have expert knowledge about the industry in which Amcor operates. To perform the work efficiently as per the governance principle of ASX Corporate, the committee should have this proper understanding (Hardy 2014). The board appoints the members and chairperson of the committee. This chairperson is an independent director and not a board’s chairperson.

Remuneration, Non-Auditing Services, and Independence of Auditors

The audit committee carries the responsibilities of the company to analyze and evaluate the financial data stated by the directors of the committee. The items that are being analyzed by the audit committee can be varied in terms of approval to the management. Another responsibility that the audit committee obtains id to correct the recorded financial data if any changes is needed or any misstatement is taken place in the financial report. The Audit committee also represents the financial report in a way so that it can be understandable to all the stakeholders of the company. In accordance with the auditing principles and auditing standards, the audit committee cannot influence the auditing activities which are done by the key auditors. The committee is being situated with a purpose of examining the prepared audit report in terms of making the final approval (Pettigrew 2015). The generally accepted accounting policies and the accounting principles which is being used for internal control system is also examined by the committee. The committee members are being elected within the board members of the company and the delegation of such authority can be operated by the designated members of the committee.

There are certain responsibilities that are being assigned on the audit committee of the company. This committee is obliged to report the framework of risk which is operated by the directors of the company. Apart from that the audit committee also assists the directors of the company so that the directors of the company can perform their duties in terms of financial and accounting purpose. Beside this, the audit committee also examines the integrity and the quality which is put in the effort of making the audit report. The audit plans which is implemented both in the internal and external controls of the company is also been reviewed by the audit committee and certain suggestions regarding any limitations of the plans are advised to the directors of the company who are responsible for implementing the plan (Halligan 2017). The committee members are being elected by the directors of the company and the committee is assigned with the responsibility to examine the rotation, compensation, oversight and appointment of the external auditors for auditing purpose. Thus, it is the responsibility of the external auditors to report directly to the audit committee. The committee also reviews the appointment and the dismissal of the vice president of the internal auditing vice president and the audit report which is prepared by the internal audit committee is directly presented to the audit committee by the vice president of the internal audit board. Any members of the audit committee can call for a audit meeting in case it is needed to evaluate certain issues involved in the audit report.

Conclusion

In accordance with Corporation Act 2001, the audit report is presented with an intention to analyze the financial report presented by the directors of the company. This report contains various segments of financial statement of the company and it provides the exact and accurate status of the financial position of the company. The report was presented on the month of June, 2018 and the audit report was designed to assure the stakeholders of the company that the given audit report does not contain any material mistreatment and free from any kind of fraudulence and error. In case of any such misstatement take place in the financial statement of the company, it is stated that this can influence the financial status of the company in terms of stated accounts. The audit committee provides a subjective judgment and an overall assumption over the future operational plans on the company based on the historical evidences of present and past incidents regarding the financial activities of the company (Ferguson et al. 2014). It is declared by the audit committee that all the auditing events have been performed in accordance with the legislations stated in the regulations of Corporation Act 2001, Australian Accounting Standard. The Accounting of the company has been done by following the regulations stated by AASB and the auditing of the financial report has been done on basis of Australian Auditing Standard.

In terms of responsibilities, the auditors and the directors serves different purposes in terms of the independence requirements and to increase the workflow of accounting. The Directors are entitled with the responsibility to prepare the financial report of the company, analyze the report, point out certain key issues regarding the business of the company, and implement certain policies of the committee in accordance with the issue. The preparation of financial report by the directors by maintaining the fair and true view of the financial status of the company is being accomplished by following the legislations stated in the corporation act 2001 and the Australian Accounting Standard (Thomas and Beh 2015). The auditors of the company are also obliged with the responsibility to disclose all the necessary requirements which is enlisted in the provisions issued by the legislations of ITAA 1997. This statement of the report and disclosures of the key matters of accounting is being declared by maintaining the proper ethics of accounting and the accounting rules which is most appropriate for it. The accounting rules regarding several accounting issues are also being implemented by the directors unless the directors decided to withdraw the financial operations or cease the whole venture.

In terms of the responsibilities of the auditors of the company, it is required analyzed the financial statements of the company and to assure the management that all the stated data in the financial report has been followed the proper legislations and are free from any material mistreatment and are not obliged with any kind of fraudulence or error by the directors. Though the assurance provided by the auditors cannot be regarded as a guarantee as the financial statements are being presented by the directors of the company. The assurance that is provided to the management of the company contains a high level of security and this conduct is being accomplished in accordance with the provisions stated in the Australian Auditing Standard. In case of any material misstatement is found in the financial statement of the company, the economic decision taken by the auditors can influence the operations and controls done by the directors on a basis of group of items or individual item (Miah 2017).

In order to evaluate the material value over the items incurred by the company, the historical knowledge of the company is taken into consideration. Certain items such as return on assets and earning per share which are being considered as a material event and do not included in the normal operational activities of the business are being excluded from the financial report. In order to evaluate the material misstatements of the company regarding the associate risks, the materiality of the group in being compared with the overall materiality level and the result is applied in the operations of the group events conducted by the business. Certain material values such as material incomes, impairment risks and indirect tax exposures are being considered as the investment carrying value in this segment (Griffiths 2016).

Conclusion

The report was evaluated with a purpose to measure the material effectiveness of the business entity and the auditors are obliged to identify the proper effectiveness of the material information as the information is justified by the auditors for several appropriate reasons. The impairment risk incurred from the investment carrying value is being considered as material information as there is a deficit that can be noticed between the price of quoted shares and the value of investment carrying unit. By doing the overall analysis of the audit report provided in the annual report of the company Amcor Limited, it can be seen that the audit report presented by the auditors of the company has followed every provisions and legislations which is stated in the regulations like Corporation Act 2001 and the Australian Accounting Standard.

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