Auditors’ duties and obligations in light of the Covid-19 pandemic

This article will discuss auditors’ duties and obligations in light of COVID-19 pandemic. The discussion will show whether auditors are able to exercise its role effectively. This is due to the fact that movement control orders in Malaysia, would have either prohibited or restricted auditors from physically travelling to their client companies to carry out audit. Furthermore, employees of the client companies may not be available to provide the necessary documents and information as required by the auditors especially in cases where the documents are at the physical premises of the company. This is so unless it is the practice of the companies to digitalise its documents. Even in that case, the question remains whether the employees have access to the documents using their own computers unless they are placed in the cloud storage. Furthermore, employees of the company will have to answer relevant questions raised by the auditors in relation to the documents which again may prove to be difficult in view of the movement control orders. Certain companies may not wish to store them in the clouds due to security issues. Thus, it can be observed that auditors face great challenges in carrying their audit. Consequently, the question will be whether audit was compromised during these trying times. The article will examine the approaches taken by the audit profession and the guidelines issued by professional bodies in conducting audit in light of the pandemic. The guidelines are imperative in ensuring that client companies do not take advantage of the pandemic at the expense of the challenges faced by auditors. Additionally, guidelines by regulators will also be examined. Ultimately, effective auditing produces effective auditors as watchdogs.