Fraud

What the Project Aims to Achieve

The current aim of this project is to determine if, and to what extent, the IAASB should take further action (e.g., possible future standard-setting, issuance of non-authoritative guidance, or other actions) to address issues and challenges that have been identified relating to fraud in an audit of financial statements.

Project Timeline

The following table sets out the project timeline. Please note that these are current targeted milestones and may change as the work in this area progresses.

Current Status of the Project

This project is currently in the information gathering and research phase, which will be used to inform future IAASB decisions about its activities relating to fraud in an audit of financial statements.

As part of its information gathering and research, the IAASB issued a Discussion Paper in September 2020 to consult on whether the ISAs related to fraud and going concern need to be updated to reflect the rapidly evolving financial reporting landscape, and, if so, in what areas. Responses to the Discussion Paper were due February 1, 2021.

In recognition that the fraud project proposal requires careful scoping and would benefit from a few iterations to finalize for Board consideration, the IAASB leadership took the decision to move the approval of the project proposal for fraud to the December 2021 IAASB meeting (this was previously planned for September). We believe this additional investment in time and effort will assist in getting the key public interest objective right. We will also ensure that our project proposal fairly reflects what we heard from respondents, the Fraud Working Group’s deliberations, feedback from the Board and further outreach undertaken.

Working Group Information

IAASB Staff Contacts

• Angela Donnelly
• Beverley Bahlmann
• Hanken Talatala

Working Group Members

• Lyn Provost, Chair
• Julie Corden
• Len Jui
• Diane Larsen
• Fabien Cerutti

Project Stages