The reporting standards include form, timeliness, report contents, report presentation, and report distribution. Government Auditing Standards generally does not contemplate that the auditor will be called upon to express an opinion on the overall level of performance. Rather, Government Auditing Standards requires that the auditor report his or her findings, and where applicable, the auditor's conclusions developed in response to the audit objective. 1 was issued by the Management Consulting Services Executive Committee and was effective January 1, 1992. This standard defines consulting services to include advisory services in which the practitioner is to develop findings, conclusions, and recommendations for client consideration.
Examples given include operational reviews and improvement studies.
Although not yet common in practice, an attestation engagement is one in which a CPA is engaged to attest to management's written assertion that is, in the case of performance audits, the responsibility of program managers. The auditor should consider documenting in the audit working papers which standards were considered applicable for the engagement. The written audit report should also state that the audit was conducted in accordance with professional standards and disclose when any applicable standards were not followed.