Audit quality is fundamental to maintaining public trust and is the key measure on which our professional reputation stands. We define “Audit quality” as the outcome when audits are executed consistently, in line with the requirements and intent of applicable professional standards within a strong system of quality management. All of our related activities are undertaken in an environment of the utmost level of objectivity, independence, ethics and integrity.
Audit quality is a journey and our focus is to always invest and innovate, with a continuous improvement objective. Our commitment to driving improvements in audit quality and global consistency is embodied in our Global Audit Quality (GAQ) program.
The ultimate objective of our GAQ program is for our audit professionals to feel confident that they have the support, tools, and environment they need to consistently deliver a high-quality audit.
Global Audit Quality initiatives - Aligned to four pillars, the GAQ initiatives were launched in 2018 and designed to enable compliance with the new quality management standards (ISQM1, ISQM 2 and ISA 220) and the deployment of KPMG Clara workflow.
While we have achieved many transformational milestones as a result of these initiatives, audit quality is a job that is never finished and through our continuous improvement efforts we continue to make advances.
Governance and accountability
Culture assessment, tone at the top – refreshed our KPMG Values, Global people survey and quality action planning
• Governance, accountability and roles and responsibilities
• Resource management and portfolio management
• Audit Workforce, today and tomorrow - Powering our people
Practice management and lines of defense
• System of Quality Management (ISQM1)
• Talking about global audit quality – Winning on Audit Quality, AQ framework, talking points
• Second line of defense deployment kit and aide memoires
• Global IT Audit updates and Global IT Audit playbook
• Department Of Professional Practice (DPP)
• Engagement quality control reviews
• Regulatory affairs – deployment of regulatory strategy built on transparent, credible and respectful relationships with audit regulators.
Methodology, workflow and enabling technology
• KPMG Clara
• Audit Learning and Development – Mandatory Audit Training Curriculum
• Engagement monitoring – Real time monitoring audit engagement performance
Monitoring
• Global Audit Quality for Banks
• Assessment of operating effectiveness of member firm’s SoQM - KPMG Quality & Compliance Evaluation workflow
• Assessment of quality - Audit Risk & Quality Intelligence
• Root cause analysis
