GENERALLY ACCEPTED GOVERNMENT AUDITING STANDARDS
The Audit Bureaus are required by the City Charter to perform audits in accordance with Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS). These standards are established by the Comptroller General of the United States in conjunction with the General Accountability Office (GAO), and are found in its publication, Government Auditing Standards. GAGAS was established to guide auditors and allow others to rely on auditors’ work.
To meet demands for more responsive and cost-effective governments, policymakers and managers need reliable financial and performance information. The assurance auditors provide about that information, as well as about systems producing it, may be more important now than ever before. This reliance on auditors enhances the need for standards to guide auditors and allow others to rely on auditors’ work.
GAGAS provides a framework for conducting high quality government audits with competence, integrity, objectivity, and independence. GAGAS contains requirements and guidance dealing with ethics, independence, auditors’ professional judgment, quality control, the performance of fieldwork, and reporting.
Audit organizations performing audits in accordance with GAGAS must have an external peer review performed by independent reviewers at least once every three years. The most recent peer review report of the Audits Bureaus, which was issued by the Institute of Internal Auditors, is attached.
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