Audit and Review Engagements

Staffing and Resources

Clientele

Our Audit Approach

Additional Services

Our Responsibilities

Clients' Responsibilities

Fees

How to Contact Us

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Staffing and Resources

Our Audit Department has an expanding number of professional, semi-professional and support personnel and a history of good continuity of staff. We are confident that we have the necessary human resources to meet client requirements on an efficient and timely basis.

By staying in regular contact with key client staff we can address issues as they arise thus avoiding the build-up of outstanding matters.

The Department comprises of twenty (20) staff members and is led by Partner Mr. Robert McRae. Mr. Nigel Trellis, an ACCA member, is our Senior Audit Manager. He is supported by Junior Manager, Mr. Ramdeo Kumar, and 18 audit seniors, semi seniors and clerks.

Our audit staff are part of intensive and continuing training sessions throughout the year. All have a minimum of five 'O’levels at grades one or two. Higher-level staff members are required to have specific accounting qualifications. Examples of qualifications we recognise and which are possessed by our more senior staff members are LCC Higher, AAT, University of Guyana Degree and/or ACCA passes. Experience in the audit field is also important in our appointments.

Clientele

Christopher L Ram & Company successfully serve a number of national, regional and international clients involved in a wide range of business activities. We bring to every new assignment a wide range of experience gained on a number of auditing engagements in several industries. Our present client list, of over one hundred companies, covers most industries including banking, insurance, hire purchase, manufacturing, retailing, services and NGOs. We believe that in the provision of audit services we can make a significant contribution to any type of organisation.

Our Audit Approach

We regard an audit engagement as a continuous exercise organized in discrete phases with the objectives of early detection of problems and the efficient conduct of the audit.

Our audit approach facilitates effective and efficient delivery of high quality service to our clients. It provides a framework that contemplates timely Partner involvement and allows the use of alternatives based on professional judgement and audit team input.

The key elements of our approach are as follows:

• Conduct client needs assessment exercise. The objectives are to gain a better understanding of the client’s service delivery needs (what they value), help us achieve higher levels of client satisfaction and identify ways to increase the value of our services.

• Identify and orient the audit team. Internally, we form the engagement team based on information obtained during the client needs assessment activity, as well as on the resources required (and available) to complete the audit.

• Perform general planning and identify areas of audit significance. We seek to understand how external and internal factors affect the client’s business, gain an understanding of the client’s control environment and how these factors may affect our audit strategy. We also perform an overall financial analysis to help us identify significant accounts and learn more about the client’s operations and financial condition. Preliminary materiality judgements are made that are used to determine the nature, timing and extent of our audit procedures.

• Develop and confirm our service delivery plan. Based on what we have learned about the client in the planning procedures, our engagement team develops the audit plan. Our planned deliverables and other significant aspects of our service delivery are confirmed with the client and documented in an Audit Planning Memorandum.

• Understand and evaluate significant sources of information and identify and evaluate relevant controls. We obtain an understanding of and evaluate the sources of information that affect significant accounts. Our objective is to assess the likelihood of errors of audit importance in each significant account or group of accounts resulting from the particular processes that affect the account(s) concerned. We determine the types of error that could occur in these processes and how they could occur. We then identify the relevant controls that exist to prevent or detect these errors and to ensure the reliability of estimates, and consider their potential effectiveness.

• Perform tests of controls. When we have determined that we intend to rely on a client’s controls for one or more objectives, we satisfy ourselves that those controls were in use and functioning as intended throughout the period of reliance.

• Develop and execute final audit. We make a final evaluation of controls based on the results of the tests and develop final audit programs accordingly. Substantive procedures are performed to obtain direct evidence as to the completeness, accuracy, and validity of data and as to the reasonableness of the estimates and other information contained in the financial statements.

• Draw overall audit conclusions and present the value of our results. We evaluate the overall results of our audit procedures and document the overall audit conclusions we reached based on those results. The management letter and audit report are discussed and agreed with the client.
  
• Improve service delivery. At the close of the engagement the client is asked to provide us with direct feedback on its satisfaction with the delivery of our services. The team reviews its performance in order to capitalize on its achievements and learn from its experiences.

Additional Services

We do not regard any engagement as confining the range of our services to only the audit of financial statements. Rather, in our ongoing quest to add value to the operations of our clients we also offer the following related services:

1. Assistance in the development of finance and internal audit staff. We recognise the importance of skilled finance and internal audit staff . Our services in this area help organisations combat the practical difficulty of obtaining relevant training in Guyana.

Ram & McRae is the first AAT approved assessment centre in Guyana and is therefore responsible for the development and execution of training programmes in this regard. We provide similar training to the finance, accounting and internal audit staff of clients.

2.    Special Investigations. We conduct special investigations and systems analyses to identify and eliminate fraud and irregularities in your operations.

3. Value For Money Audits. We perform this special type of audit, which is concerned with every sphere of the organisation’s activities. The prime objective is the monitoring of management’s performance at every level, to ensure optimal functioning according to pre-determined criteria based on the principles of economy, efficiency and effectiveness.

4.     Review engagements. Whether your company is launching a prospectus or seeking financing from a commercial Bank, we can add credibility to your financials by conducting a review and issuing an accountant’s report.

Our Responsibilities

As your auditors our responsibilities will be as follows:

• We are required to make a report to the members on the accounts examined by us, and on every balance sheet and every profit and loss account laid before the Company in general meeting during our tenure of office. Our report shall state: -

1. Whether, in our opinion, the balance sheet and profit and loss account referred to in the report are properly prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act.
2. Whether in our opinion a true and fair view is given –

(i) in the case of the balance sheet, of the state of the Company’s affairs as at the end of its financial year; and

(ii) in the case of the receipts and disbursements account, of the company’s retained earnings or deficit for its financial year.

3. Whether in addition to the foregoing general duties we have performed the special duties, if any, imposed upon us by any resolution or the Articles of Incorporation.

• In preparing our report we have a duty to carry out such investigations that will enable us to form an opinion as to :

(i) whether proper books of account have been kept by the Company and proper returns adequate for their audit have been received from branches not visited by us and

(ii) whether the Company’s balance sheet and profit and loss account are in agreement with the books of accounts and returns

• We have a professional responsibility to report if the financial statements do not comply in any material respect with Accounting Standards issued by the Institute Of Chartered Accountants of Guyana and generally accepted accounting principles, unless in our opinion the non-compliance is justified in the circumstances.

• While the responsibility for the prevention and detection of irregularities and fraud rests with yourselves, we nevertheless endeavour to plan our audit so that we have a reasonable expectation of detecting material misstatements in the financial statements or accounting records resulting from irregularities or fraud.

Clients' Responsibilities

As our client your responsibilities will include:

• Making the company’s management personnel available for discussions and interviews with our staff at various times during an engagement.
• Supplying suitable workspace for our staff at your office when visits become necessary.
• Responding promptly to all correspondence including the annual management letter, which is a product of the audit.
• Maintaining proper accounting records and preparing financial statements that give a true and fair view and comply with the Companies Act. You are also responsible for making available to us, as and when required, all the Company's accounting records and all other records and related information, including minutes of all management and shareholders' meetings.
• Providing written confirmation of oral representations provided to us during the course of the audit.
• Making available to us all documents or statements, including the chairman's statement and the directors' report, which may be issued with the financial statements. We are also entitled to attend all general meetings of the Company and to receive notice of all such meetings.

Fees

Our fees are computed on the basis of the time necessarily spent on your affairs by our staff, and on the levels of skill and responsibility involved. An estimate of these fees is normally agreed in an engagement letter that you sign upon our appointment as auditors. In order to facilitate a mutually acceptable cash flow, 50 percent of the agreed fee is payable on commencement of the engagement. The balance is billed in increments of 25 percent with the last payment being due on finalization of the accounts

How to Contact Us

Our key audit personnel can be contacted on the following direct telephone lines:

Audit Partner: 592-2-74891
Senior Audit Manager: 592-2-77463
or send us an e-mail at ramc@solutions2000.net

Send mail to yale@guyana.net.gy with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 1998 Ram & McRae - CLR & Co.
Last modified: December 10, 1998