Your firm has been appointed as the auditors of Stuart Limited, a well-established consumer goods ma

Your firm has been appointed as the auditors of Stuart Limited, a well-established consumer
goods manufacturing company. During the audit you were provided with various oral
representation during meetings and discussions. While finalizing the audit you requested the
management to provide such representations in writing. The management has however informed
you that they are not accustomed to providing any representations to the external auditor in
writing. The management is of the view that it has provided full access to whatever records,
documents and evidence were available with it without any exception and that now it is the
auditor’s responsibility to correlate the same with the oral representations. What would be your
response to the above?

a) Agree with management since you have been provided full access to whatever records,
documents and evidence were available with management without any exception.

b) Document that management gave oral representation in audit working paper and issue
unmodified opinion.

c) After corroborating the audit evidence, consider this as a scope limitation and then consider
to express a qualified opinion or disclaimer of opinion or re-assess the continuation of
engagement with the audit client if integrity of the management is in question.

d) Give unmodified opinion and include the observation in “other matter” paragraph, stating
that the written representations of the concerned matters could not be obtained.