Auditor's Report Contents PageI invite all of you to attend the AAA Annual Meeting in Dallas and to participate in Auditing Section activities. Our business meeting (the last one held in conjunction with the AAA Annual Meeting) is on Monday, August 18 from 10:00 am to noon. At that meeting we will hear from various committees and task forces on the work they have accomplished during the past year and we will have our town meeting at which we will discuss topics of importance to both the Section and the auditing profession as a whole. Please come and share your concerns and help us set new directions. We will also have an election for the treasurer and president-elect positions. Candidates for those positions are announced elsewhere in this newsletter. Of particular importance at our business meeting will be reports from the committee to study the feasibility of a revision of ASOBAC (A Statement of Basic Auditing Concepts) chaired by Andy Bailey and from the Communications Task Force chaired by Mike Groomer. Our luncheon will follow with David Landsittel as the speaker and we will present the Outstanding Dissertation, Service and Educator Awards. I look forward to hearing from David as he relates his experiences on the Fraud Task Force and as he shares other issues and concerns in the practice world. I urge you to join us and become involved in the Auditing Section and help us become one of the top auditing organizations in the country.
As I write this final report to you I want to thank you again for allowing me to serve as president of this organization. I see a great future for the Auditing Section and expect us to continue with a dynamic, proactive approach to the rapidly changing business and academic worlds we are all facing. We must keep in close touch with the practitioner world to bring the very latest from that world to our teaching and research. Tom Powell has helped us in that regard by instituting the Practice Advisory Council and we will hear much from them in the future. As I write this report I am beginning a three-month assignment in the internal audit department at The World Bank. This assignment is a direct outgrowth of the work of the Practice Advisory Council. Current Council membership includes The World Bank Auditor General J. Graham Joscelyne. I will share my experience with you in a later issue of The Auditor’s Report. Although I will complete various assignments and participate in some audits, the underlying purpose of the assignment is to create a strong link between the practice and academic worlds. I feel very excited about this opportunity and want to thank The World Bank internal audit group and in particular, Mr. Joscelyne for making it possible.
I expect in my experience to gain a clear understanding of the implementation of the COSO framework for internal control in an organization. One of the major aspects of that implementation is a "control self-assessment workshop" in which internal auditors assist management in understanding the COSO framework and in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of their control systems. Dennis Schueler, our vice president from practice, a member of our Practice Advisory Council and Partner and National Director of Internal Audit at Price Waterhouse, tells me that we in the academic world must help in this effort by assuring that future managers learn about control systems and what they mean in terms of corporate governance within the COSO, COCO and Cadbury frameworks. I know all of us have taught control system concepts in our financial auditing courses and some of us teach control within the COSO, COCO and Cadbury frameworks but how many of us expand that beyond the accounting department? I know Bill Kinney teaches such a course to MBA students at the University of Texas but I don’t know of any others. I would like to see us take a proactive stance on that issue. Those of us who choose not to will find other departments filling the need. I will ask our Education Committee to look into this issue and see if the Section can provide some leadership.
I hope to see all of you in Dallas. Thanks again for allowing me to serve. I appreciate your confidence in me and I would like to thank Barry Cushing, Karl Hackenbrack, Robert Knechel, Lisa Koonce, Dennis Schueler and Arnie Wright for their help on the Executive Committee while I served as president. I also want to thank all the committee chairs and members for their help with our agenda and you the members for your involvement. I wish Barry Cushing the best when he takes over in August as president of the Section. I intend to stay involved in various ways and would like to see as many of you as possible become proactively involved also.
Jane F. Mutchler
Auditor's Report Contents Page