RISKS OF THE AUDITING SERVICES QUALITY
Authors:   National University of Water and Environmental Engineering, Levytska Svitlana 
Published: May 2024

Introduction. Today, more than a million subjects of economic activity in the world are certified according to the ISO 9001 standard - quality management system. The quality management system (QMS) is an integral part of management that follows both market norms and business rules. The practice of implementing QMS, along with the optimistic results of quality improvements, reveals the debatable aspects of such processes. Problem Statement. The International Quality Management Standards application (which is one of the main audit reform directions in Ukraine) is today complicated both by the active pace of the mentioned processes (insufficient time for the unification of quality policies and procedures) and the difficulty of international regulatory practical application policies and procedures regarding audit quality. Subjects quite often postpone their orders for conducting a mandatory audit during the period of martial law, which leads to the emergence of quality control risks. Purpose – coverage of modern trends in the audit quality risks identification and assessment, justification for an audit firm of an alternative internal quality management system as an integral operational management component, that will enable the systematic approach formation to conduct a competitive audit. Methods. General scientific and special methods are used: analysis, synthesis, grouping, description, comparison, theoretical generalization and abstract-logical. Results. The complex nature of quality risks in modern audit conditions, their impact on the validity, reliability and persuasiveness of the auditor's opinion is revealed. The quality risk is investigated based on a comprehensive risk assessment in terms of the audit company's “quality management system” components. Common errors of auditing companies in the quality management system organization, the significance of their impact on compliance with norms and goals of audit quality are given. Based on the conceptual rules and principles of the International Quality Management Standards, alternative components of the “Quality Management System” for the audit company, their structural and logical connections with the identification of the functional role are proposed. Based on the international practice of risk-oriented management, methodical approaches to the identification and risk assessment are proposed, alternatives for internal regulation and specified processes documentation are revealed. Conclusions. The quality management system does not have a simple cycle, its effectiveness lies in systemic regulatory and internal management development. The internal audit of the QMS cannot fulfill its function by declarative decisions only. Due to the established communication with the auditors, interest in the demand for his role, the person responsible for the company's QMS should raise his competence' level, work with quality risks “in advance”. Issues of audit quality risk management highlighted in the article are quite new and require the methodological and practical principles formation of regulation and conceptually unified mechanisms for the implementation of such processes by audit companies.